


Sanguine

by lrhaboggle



Category: Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre: 1680, 1698, AU, Backstory, Blood, Carmilla has a LOT of family, Evil, F/M, Heterosexual Romance, Magic, Mircalla, Murder, Prequel, Sisters, Victims, Vordenberg - Freeform, bloodline, bloodsucker, karnstein - Freeform, lots of sisters, m - Freeform, non-LGBT, vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 17:31:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 25,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14242317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lrhaboggle/pseuds/lrhaboggle
Summary: What was life like for Carmilla before she was turned? Nobody is born a monster, so how does an innocent child become a cruel and conniving vampire? What has to happen in order for a mighty kingdom to fall in only 18 years?





	1. Introduction

Chapters:

Karnstein

Doll

Big Change

Wedding Regrets

New Countess

Another New Countess

Hardened Heart

Vordenberg

Mircalla's Birthday Ball

A Night of Wonders

Vampire Hunt

The Fall of Magdalena

Planning

The Chapel

Put to Rest

Escape From Karnstein

Characters:

Ferenc: Mircalla's violent and arrogant father.

Jusztina: Mircalla's more level-headed and affectionate mother, though she is very submissive and quiet.

Hans: Mircalla's almost-father in law. Is meant to be that bumbling but well-meant father.

Cornelius: Mircalla's human lover who helped her escape from Karnstein.

(Below are Mircalla and her 11 sisters. The ones in italics were the ones that died pre-story and the ages are just to show how old everyone is at the time of Mircalla's birth even if they're already dead).

Name (Age): Description

Marcia (15): Oldest. Very mature and dutiful but cares too deeply for those left in her charge.

 _Mary_ (14)

Matilda (13): Second oldest, not quite as dutiful as Marcia, but she tries to be. She's smart but does not hold fast to anything.

 _Martha_ (11)

Maria (10): Very violent, aggressive, arrogant and stubborn, just like her father.

 _Mildred_ (8)

 _Miriam_ (8)

Margreta (6): The non-descript middle child who later proves to be incredibly caring to those in her charge and a very good leader.

Maximiliana (5): The little adventurer and "sports freak" who, though not as violent as Maria, is somewhat "mannish".

Magdalena (3): The bullied and forgotten sixth sister who is not as mentally healthy as her sisters which leads to some issues.

 _Margherita_ (1.5)

Mircalla (0): Our Carmilla back when she was still a human. Goes through a lot of mental, emotional and physical change over the years.

**AN: This is a Carmilla prequel. Predominately, it was for the book. Be forewarned that things may seem OOC and you may not be happy with the results of the story or the way it was told. I apologize now, but I really wanted to post this because it does show Mircalla's descent, physically and emotionally, from a sweet child into a heartless and conniving vampire. This is just a 1600s AU and my idea about what Carmilla's life looked like.**

**Also, no queer themes are in this story because to me, that aspect does not come until later, after Mircalla runs away. She has a heterosexual romance with a man who almost became her husband (mentioned both in book and S2 of the webseries). In this prequel AU, they did genuinely love each other. And the reason Mircalla has so many sisters is because some nobles back then had a crap-ton of kids and because I like the "Carmilla had siblings when she was alive" headcanon. Sorry if the "M…..A" naming scheme confuses you, but I couldn't help myself. (The character guide above should help).**

**Also, I apologize for vampire-lore or historical inaccuracies.**

**(Also, the title is a reference in several ways. Sanguine means "hopeful" "red" and "blood". Mircalla used to be the first but then she quickly became the second and third. See if you can spot other references in the story).**


	2. Karnstein

Karnstein was not, in anyone's opinion, that particularly beautiful. It was, however, quite intimidating. With sprawling grounds, a multitude of towers and fortresses, hardy walls and well-worn roads, the land was clearly a land of wealth and power if it wasn't one of beauty. The castle was quite large, especially for the rank of people who lived within. It was surrounded by a large wall with imposing gates at the front which would open to reveal the castle's majestic front. It certainly was an admirable building, what with all those towers and halls and arches. It also served a great deal of purposes, the most important being the home of the Karnstein family. The Karnsteins were not on the highest rung of the noble class by any stretch of the imagination, but they were a mighty and noble family nonetheless and their large castle was a testimony to that fact. It was a good thing the castle was large as well because, along with housing a count and countess, the many gray walls also contained seven heirs. All of them were female. To the count of Karnstein, Ferenc, this was more than a slight disappointment.

Ferenc had always been incredibly fierce, a true warrior at heart, and to have as many children as he had, all female, was almost an insult. He would've thought himself so masculine that every last child of his should have been a son, but no, they were all daughters. But perhaps he was already so tough and strong and masculine that it left nothing for his children, hence why all of them had been women? This was what the arrogant and aggressive count told himself in order to placate his ego and disappointment.

But even so, Ferenc was still not pleased when he realized that his 12th child was also a daughter (although only seven children were ever alive at once, Ferenc had sired a total of 12 children in all). That 12th little girl became his last because he swore off ever trying for children ever again. Given the luck he'd already had, any further offspring would probably all be daughters and he already had seven. He didn't need more.

"Surely the fates are mocking me!" he muttered angrily when the midwife came to him, telling him that this child was a girl as well. "If that is the game they wish to play, then I swear I will never have another child! Seven will have to do…"

The countess of Karnstein, Jusztina, received the 12th child a little bit better than her hotheaded husband.

"Perhaps it is a disappointment that she was not born a son, but I suppose that since there is nothing we can do to change it, we must be happy with what we have," she said as the newborn suckled her.

"What will you name her?" the midwife asked. Jusztina thought quietly for a moment before deciding upon a simple name.

"Mircalla. Mircalla Karnstein. The 12th and final child of our line."

Meanwhile, the other six daughters were all a-buzz in one of the other rooms of the castle.

"When do you think Mama will let us see her?" one asked. Her name was Magdalena and she was the second youngest now that Mircalla was here.

"Probably not for awhile," a second replied. Her name was Margareta and she was the middle child.

"But I want to see her now!" a third demanded. Her name was Maria, she was the third eldest and the most aggressive.

"Me too! Me too!" the fourth agreed with the third. Her name was Maximiliana and she was the fifth eldest, only a year older than Magdalena.

"Be quiet, Maria!" a fifth chided. Her name was Matilda and she was the second eldest.

"You be quiet!" Maria shot back.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Margreta warned, eyes darting back and forth between her two older sisters.

Only one sister did not speak. It was Marcia, eldest of the Karnsteins. She was already quite mature for her age and to be the eldest in the room meant that there wasn't much someone like her had, or wanted, to say. Instead, she sat quietly by the window, staring languidly out at the other girls in the room. She would only intervene if fists flew. If not, however, she was more than content to watch passively in silence. In truth, however, behind a calm visage, she was just as eager and anxious to meet her new sister.

As for the other five daughters, each had succumbed to various ailments over the years. The first to fall was Mary, dying in the womb. She would have been second eldest had she survived. After her, Martha died. The girl was only three when a particularly nasty disease took her away. She was just a year younger than Matilda. Next was a set of twins, Mildred and Miriam. Mildred died before she'd even reached one year of age but Miriam managed to make it all the way up to six years before passing away. Then, the last Karnstein child to die was Margherita. Her death was very similar to Mary's. She did not die in the womb, but she died during the birthing process, having been born too early. The strain of her first few minutes ended up proving to be too much to bear and she died while she was still half inside the womb.

So of 12, seven girls survived with Mircalla being the seventh. The other six Karnstein daughters were anxious to meet their youngest and last kin, but they had not yet been granted permission. Unlike their harsh father, they found the wait to be most unbearable. The mother, however, felt no rush and did not intend to bring her other six daughters in until the seventh had gotten the chance to acclimate to life outside of the womb.

"Don't worry, Mircalla," Jusztina cooed to her infant. "You will meet the others soon enough, but you are a Karnstein either way."

So, in some strange sense, the Karnstein family was complete. Ferenc, Jusztina, and their seven children: Marcia, Matilda, Maria, Margreta, Maximiliana, Magdalena, and Mircalla. The castle was a very noisy place after that, each of the girls bringing their own type of liveliness to the table. For the most part, they were well-behaved and well-liked in the opinion of everyone else in the castle, except Ferenc of course. True, the girls each had a mean streak and could be incredibly spoiled, but they not bad compared to most nobles. At least not yet.


	3. Doll

"Marcia, Matilda, Maria, Margreta, Maximiliana, Magdalena!" a high-pitched and whining voice echoed across the castle halls and it was followed by the sound of tiny feet pattering along as fast as they could. This was Mircalla Karnstein, youngest of the Karnstein clan. She was about six years old now and she was in the process of trying to find any of her six older sisters. It was her belief that one of them had taken her favorite china doll because the doll was no longer in her possession. It was not anywhere in her room therefore one of her sisters must have taken it. It wouldn't be the first time they had done such a thing to her. She continued to storm down the long and twisting halls of the castle, ignoring the cold chill of the stone on her bare feet.

"Marcia, Matilda, Maria, Margreta, Maximiliana, Magdalena!" she repeated angrily. Then at last, she found one of the six. She found the eldest of them all, Marcia Karnstein. She was currently engrossed in a book, curled up by a window of the castle's giant library.

"Marcia!" Mircalla whined as she entered the library, making a bee-line for Marcia.

"What?" Marcia asked, not looking up from her book.

"Did you take my doll?" Mircalla pouted, annoyed that her sister wasn't paying attention to her.

"What?" Marcia repeated, amusement in her low, rich voice. She finally turned from her novel to look at her youngest sister.

"My doll! I can't find her! Did you take her?" Mircalla pressed and when Marcia began to laugh, Mircalla's pout only deepened.

"Why would you think I have your doll?" the older girl asked.

"Because I can't find her anywhere!" Mircalla responded irritably.

"You know I'm too old for dolls!" Marcia cried back, exasperated amusement in her voice as she continued to stare down at Mircalla.

"Well then where's Maria? Maybe she'll know!" Mircalla's voice took a deadly edge as her temper shorted. That was a big mistake on her part.

The moment she dared allow such a threatening timbre to enter her voice, the fun and games ended. Suddenly, Marcia was no longer the amused big sister Mircalla knew. Instead, she became the fierce Karnstein that she was born to be.

"Mircalla Karnstein! You know better than to speak to me, your oldest sister, with such a disrespectful voice!" Marcia never raised her voice above a whisper, but her timbre was so threatening that she didn't need to and Mircalla wilted at once. "I am your superior and I expect to be treated as such. Am I understood?" she asked. Her eyes were as cold and hard as the stone wall behind her. Mircalla looked down in fear but said nothing. Marcia respond by leaning forward slowly away from the window sill and towards Mircalla.

"Understood!" Mircalla yelped, taking a step back as her fearful eyes finally met Marcia's.

"Good," Marcia looked at her little sister with languid and burning eyes, reclining back again. At the same time, her eyes softened marginally. "I bet at least one of our sisters should be in the castle kitchen," she offered, voice soft once again.

"Thanks," Mircalla responded nervously. Although she heard the tonal change in Marcia's voice and knew that this meant that her wrath had been diverted, she still wasn't ready to anger the girl any further. Marcia really could be quite scary when she wanted. She certainly made an excellent countess of Karnstein. Mircalla secretly hoped, however, that she would never turn out like that. Instead, she liked being the sweet, little, happy girl that the other Karnsteins knew her to be. So, with a quick bow to her elder sister, little Mircalla Karnstein fled the library hastily, leaving the elder Karnstein to smirk in amusement before returning to her book.

Mircalla ran towards the kitchens next, little feet echoing the halls. Servants watched her brush by with amusement. The sweet, little Mircalla was at it again, running the castle rampant with her crazy little adventures and antics. She was such a sanguine child!

At last, Mircalla was in the warm and billowing, bellowing room that was the kitchen. Her dark eyes darted eagerly around the room until she caught sight of two of her sisters, Maria and Magdalena.

"Did either of you take my doll?!" she snapped the moment they were in sight.

"Nope!" both of them respond cheerfully, though Maria's cheer was more spiteful. It was then at Mircalla noticed them doing something.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked, distracted briefly. Maria was groping at something from the cupboard they were standing at and Magdalena was innocently holding a basket for her to drop these mysterious objects in while taking other objects out.

"Maria is replacing the jam with paint!" Magdalena responded. "and I'm helping!" she added proudly.

"Shhh! Be quiet! Do you want us to be caught?!" Maria snapped at her, though she was also grinning proudly. Magdalena gave an innocent smile and put an obedient finger to her lips. Mircalla eyes the pair cautiously, but chose to shrug off her concern.

"Where is my doll?" she asked again, returning to her original subject.

"No idea," Maria responded carelessly, without looking over her shoulder.

"I didn't take it!" Magdalena agreed.

"Well then where is it?" Mircalla was getting frustrated now. Truth be told, she had a feeling that Maria was responsible. She was, after all, the most devious of the sisters. Magdalena was far more innocent and stupid. Even Mircalla looked down on her from time to time.

"Ask Margreta!" Maria grunted, finally turning around to glare at her youngest sister. Mircalla opened her mouth to say more, but she never got to.

"Hey! What are you girls doing?!" it was the cook. He had a name, but was known only by his title. He never got an answer from the girls, however, as all of them took off running in separate directions, with Maria taking the basket from Magdalena before fleeing.

Mircalla sighed unhappily. She knew Mama and Papa wouldn't be very happy later that night, but at least Maria and Magdalena would get in trouble. That would be fun to watch. Next, Mircalla decided to go to the stables. She knew her middle sister, Margreta, would be there. That girl loved to ride horses. Sure enough, Mircalla's guess-work was accurate. She exited the castle entirely and strode over to the stables where the sounds of swearing, neighing, and metallic clanking could be heard.

"Margreta?!" Mircalla cried out as she approached the massive old building.

"Mircalla? What are you doing out here?" Margreta asked, stepping away from one of the horses.

"Did you take my doll?" Mircalla replied.

"Your doll? No, what would I want with that old thing?" Margreta scoffed. Mircalla, yet again, gave a hearty pout.

"My doll isn't old! She's missing! I want her back!" Mircalla cried.

"Well, I don't have her," Margreta responded slowly, enunciating every word with a mocking voice.

"Fine then, I'll ask Mama and Papa!" Mircalla threatened.

"You go do that," Margreta sneered back, unafraid of Mircalla. She knew that Mircalla was just trying to assert her authority, but it was hard to take a chubby six year old serious. Mircalla gave a huff, knowing what her sister was thinking. She turned back to the castle with one final glare at Margreta and then didn't look back the whole rest of the walk inside. She entirely missed the affectionate smile Margreta gave her as she left.

Once back inside, Mircalla sighed.

"I have two more sisters to ask and I bet neither of them will be of any help either!" she said to herself. She turned out correct. The first of her remaining two sisters that she ran into was Maximiliana. The girl was playing with some of her own dolls, despite being a bit old for them.

"Maximiliana!" Mircalla snapped sharply.

"Huh?! Oh, what?!" Maximiliana jerked up, dropping the dolls. "I wasn't- Oh, Mircalla! It's just you!" relief was evident upon her face as she realized which of her sisters she was looking at.

"Yeah, it's just me!" the child snapped, a little hurt by this remark.

"I thought you were Maria," Maximiliana explained, unbothered by Mircalla's cruel tone. Mircalla's scowl softened just slightly when she heard this. It was true, Maria was the most vicious of the Karnsteins. She bullied and frightened all of the younger ones and even Mircalla knew that to be caught playing with dolls was to warrant some merciless teasing. Even Mircalla, young as she was, was not safe from such scorn. It was only natural for Maximiliana to initially be nervous. At least until she understood who she was dealing with.

"So, what did you want, sis?" Maximiliana asked. Mircalla was awoken from her bitter reveries about her third oldest sister.

"My doll," she demanded sharply. "I want my doll."

"I don't have it," Maximiliana responded. Mircalla narrowed her eyes. "Come and see!" Maximiliana promised, gesturing to the few toys around her. Mircalla hated to admit it, but Maximiliana was right. None of the dolls she was playing with was the one Mircalla was looking for.

"Ok," she pouted, lower lip out and arms crossed.

"Told you!" said Maximiliana, triumphantly. Mircalla huffed.

"I'm going to go find Matilda," she said. Maximiliana shrugged in reply and waved at Mircalla before returning to her own dolls, cooing at them and telling them that she would never lose them the way Mircalla lost hers. Mircalla grunted angrily when she heard Maximiliana say this, but she did not acknowledge it.

Instead, Mircalla exited that room and went to find her last sister, Matilda. The girl was still busy in the study. Marcia had finished her lessons in the morning but Matilda had not, hence why she was still working while Marcia had been in the library.

"What, Mircalla?" Matilda asked in annoyance as the youngest Karnstein flounced into the small room.

"Have you seen my doll?" the little girl asked.

"No," Matilda's voice was brisk and her eyes were glued to the book in front of her. She was trying to understand how all this worked! It was confusing but, if Marcia could do it, so could she! Mircalla, meanwhile, backed up. She still wanted to ask about her doll but she could sense that Matilda was in no mood for games. She carefully backed out of the study instead, grumbling all the while. Matilda didn't even hear it, too busy trying to learn everything she was supposed to.

This left Mircalla alone again.

"God curse this place!" she spat dejectedly, kicking a loose stone down the hallway. She had visited each of her sisters and not a single one knew where her doll might be. This was awful! How else was Mircalla supposed to finish up her little story without that china doll? The girl continued to huff and pout but being entirely alone meant that nobody heard her.

At last, however, her temper subsided. Perhaps she didn't have her doll, but there were others things she could amuse herself with in the meantime. She could read or write or draw or play puzzles or games that didn't involve dolls. Or she could go back to one of her sisters and join them in their adventures or she could play with some of the castle animals or the other staff, if they weren't too busy. In the end, Mircalla decided to draw and she ended up sketching pictures of the moon and the castle and of her family sleeping. Every face was drawn with care, eyes closed and faces entirely relaxed. Because the pictures were only pictures, none of the figures in them moved and it almost didn't look like they were dreaming. Instead, it looked like they were dead. She titled the picture "Nighttime in Karnstein" and finished just in time to be summoned for dinner where, once again, she and her sisters would be joined together. This time, their parents would be in attendance as well, their own daily duties done for the day.

In time, right before bed, Mircalla found her missing china doll. It was lying under the middle of her bed.

"How did it get there?" she asked, frowning, kneeling down and reaching under the bed to fetch it. She pulled it back out and brushed its face free of the thin layer of dust it had obtained while lying under that old bed for so long. It was totally find other than that and the little girl wondered if perhaps one of her sisters had put the doll there after all. It was something any of them would do. But of course, when Mircalla tried to ask the next morning, all she received were earnest denials and smug smiles.


	4. Big Change

Such was the life of the Karnstein clan. Then one particular night, just a little after Mircalla turned 10 years old, everything changed. That day, up until dinner, had been entirely normal. It was only during the halfway point of dinner that the big change was revealed. The family was right in the middle of eating, all the hullaballoo of seating seven young girls at one dinner table at one time being quite commonplace. Ferenc and Jusztina sat at the head of the table, talking amongst themselves about things that bored the others. Marcia sat right beside them. Although their chatter wasn't very fun, she devoted herself to listening to it. As the eldest and future heir of Karnstein, she felt obligated to absorb as much of her parents as she could. She listened silently and intently to all they said, looking so mature when compared to her other sisters.

First and foremost was Matilda. She sat right beside Marcia, as though trying to act just the way Marcia would, but it was clear that Matilda wasn't quite as mature as Marcia because while Marcia was trying to listen to their parents, Matilda was just eating. She was paying more heed to the delicious meal in front of her than her parents and while Marcia's eyes glittered with the conversation of her parents, Matilda's eyes were darting all around the rest of the room. As hard as she tried, Marcia was clearly the more mature and proper of the two. That wasn't to say any of the others were much better, though. Right then, Mircalla was playing with Magdalena under the table. Margreta was busy seeing how many rolls she could stuff into her mouth at once. Maria was subtly carving her side of the table with one of the knives that was supposed to be used for the meat they were eating. Maximiliana was trying to make people out of her vegetables.

At one point, Mircalla popped back up into her seat and kicked Magdalena, earning an indignant cry and a pinch to the ankle.

"Enough!" Marcia rumbled softly, eyes darting from her parents to her sisters. The parents were totally oblivious.

"I got it," Margreta replied, then she slid forward until she was in a slouch and she proceeded to kick both of her sisters at the same time.

"Hey!" both of them snapped together. Maria let out an amused snort at Margaret while Marcia heaved a sigh. Then she kicked both of them for their immaturity and their picking on Mircalla and Magdalena. What ensued was a mini kick-fight under the table that Maximilian and Matilda both joined in on, Matilda nearly choking on some of her food because she was trying not to laugh and Maximilian getting so into it that she bore an almost pained expression. The parents were still totally oblivious as the kicking war continued right under their noses, literally.

"She kicked me first!" Mircalla whined when Marcia shot her another glare.

"No I didn't!" the accused sister, Maria, argued.

"I find that hard to believe!" Margreta snorted, knowing full well how aggressive Maria was.

"Shut up!" Maria snapped back, kicking Margreta.

"Oww!" she complained. Then she kicked back.

"Knock it off you guys!" Marcia warned again, kicking them both. Then she yanked her leg back with an angry shriek. Something had actually bit her! She looked down to see Magdalena's stupid face grin up at her. She scowled while the others all snorted. Mircalla got bitten next.

"You bully!" her laughter stopped at once as she crawled under the table to have at Magdalena with her fists. That was when Matilda kicked Marcia but tried to angle her foot so that the blow would be blamed on Margreta. It worked and Marcia gave her a death glare.

"I didn't do it that time!" the middle sister tried to protest.

"Yeah right!" Matilda rolled her eyes. That was when she kicked Margreta.

"Jerk!" Margreta drew back before kicking Matilda.

"Owww!" someone whined. Ok, so Margreta had not kicked Matilda. Instead, judging by the angry cry, it had been Mircalla.

"Oops," Margreta grinned sheepishly. Mircalla bit her. "OUCH!" Margreta's grin turned into a scowl and she kicked both Mircalla and Magdalena.

"Stop!" Marcia commanded, kicking again. Maria ended up getting hit and she made sure to kick back. Maximilian then hit Marcia's other leg.

At last, however, Ferenc and Jusztina called an end to their games.

"Girls!" Ferenc's sharp voice pierced the air. All at once, the kicking stopped and was replaced by looks of embarrassment.

"We have something important to discuss with you," Jusztina continued, heaving a soft sight at the antics of her children, especially when she saw Magdalena and Mircalla climb back up from under the table. Then she turned her dark gaze upon her eldest child.

"Yes, Mama?" Marcia asked, trying and failing to look innocent. Maybe she wasn't as mature as she seemed…

"We have something important to tell all of you. There's a big change coming," Jusztina replied. Marcia exhaled slightly. Ok, she wasn't in trouble.

"What is it?" she asked, trying to sound dutiful. "What's the big change?"

"You're getting married," the countess replied.

"WHAT?!" the room rumbled with seven stunned voices.

"That's right!" Ferenc interrupted before any of the seven could say anything and start a riot. "We've married you off to a duke in the next country over, about two or three days away."

"But why?" Marcia demanded. The others were surprised to hear a note of complaint in her voice. This was Marcia they were talking about, after all. Good, obedient, dutiful and perfect Marcia. And she was complaining, rebelling against their parents.

"Because the duke has offered a strong alliance with us in exchange for your hand," Ferenc replied, a sharp edge in his voice that told Marcia and everyone else in attendance that this marriage was not an option. Marcia's jaw hung open in hurt and disbelief.

"The wedding will not be for some time," Jusztina said, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had since settled over the dinner table.

"Gee, I feel so much better now!" Marcia muttered. Normally, such a remark would've garnered at least a few laughs but hearing it come from Marcia and hearing it being spoken with such a serious and bitter tone made it incredibly unfunny. Ferenc's cruel gaze didn't help matters. Instead, Marcia's sarcastic reply only frightened her other sisters. Why was Marcia being married away and why was this bothering her so much? Wasn't she supposed to be the next countess of Karnstein? Apparently not. This really was a big change, changing more than just a few lives. Instead, all of the other sisters were equally floored by this revelation.

A brief argument between father and eldest daughter followed, Marcia being the only one who dared call their father out on anything, but it ended the way every argument with Ferenc ended, loss. Ferenc sent the woman away in disgust and anger as he delivered his final ultimatum.

"You will marry the duke or you will bring about the ruin of this whole kingdom!" he snarled. "Is that guilt you are willing to bear?" his eyes pierced Marcia's soul but they all already knew the answer. Marcia really was a very dutiful girl and the idea of letting down those in her care was devastating. She could think of no other remark to make so she, with fire in her eyes, turned away from her father and back down at her plate. She scowled at the silver circle for the rest of the meal while Ferenc growled in disgust before doing likewise. Jusztina only continued to eat, trying hard to hide how uncomfortable all of that had made her.

Finally, though, it was Mircalla who broke the tension-filled silence that had overtaken the dining hall.

"So, wait a minute," she began, raising her arms as sincere confusion flickered across her small face. The others looked up at her in relief. They could hear from her tone of voice that the question she was going to ask was going to be good. They could all use something like that right then.

"What is it, little one?" asked Jusztina.

"If Marcia is getting married, when will I be married?" she asked. Despite everything that had happened just moments ago, all the sisters began to loosen up again, their amusement at Mircalla's question earning a few laughs. The laughs further relaxed the diners and even though some of the laughs had been laced with malice, most were laced with genuine warmth and relief.

"Hopefully not for a long time more," Marcia responded with a sigh. The subtle tones in her answer did cast another gloomy shadow over the dinner but nobody said anything else and instead, the issue at hand was ignored.

"Ok," Mircalla said. Then she asked her next pressing question. "In the meantime, then, can I have dessert now?" and the Karnsteins laughed again at their youngest while she pouted, sincerely hoping that something tastier than what she had would be coming her way soon. She got her wish.

While she dined on sweets and treats, three of her sisters returned to kicking and pinching each other while one tried to listen to Mama and Papa as the last two looked bored with life. Such was life for the Karnstein clan. They were a unique bunch to say the least. But given the upcoming marriage, it sounded like their clan was going to get a little bigger soon and one of them would fly the nest. That was the big change, especially for Mircalla. One of the daughters was going to leave the castle for the first and last time and seven would become six, after so many years.


	5. Wedding Regrets

In time, though, exactly as planned, the Karnsteins stood at the Karnstein chapel, uniting the lives of Marcia and the Duke. It was a lovely summer day and the wedding went smoothly. Halfway through, however, Mircalla saw a very disturbing thing. Marcia was crying.

"Marcia? What's wrong?" the little girl asked her much older sister as she hid in one of the tents set out for this massive event.

"What? Oh! Nothing!" Marcia swiped angrily at her eyes and turned away from Mircalla, silently wondering how the child had even gotten into this tent, but Mircalla wasn't stupid. She had seen her sister crying and she wanted to know why!

"It's not nothing," Mircalla insisted, even crossing her arms.

"For you it is," Marcia answered back, authoritative note already restored to her voice, though her posture still revealed fear and regret.

"It's something to you," Mircalla insisted. She moved deeper into the tiny tent until she was right behind her older sister.

"You're too young," Marcia replied, still not turning.

"I won't tell anybody!" Mircalla argued.

"Oh, it's not your telling that I worry about," Marcia chuckled darkly at Mircalla.

"Then what?! Tell me!" Mircalla continued to plead.

At last, Marcia yielded.

"I just don't want to get married," Marcia confessed. "I'm having wedding regrets!"

"What?! Why?!" Mircalla was beside herself that her flawless sister just confessed to not wanting to elevate her status and honor her clan. Of all the Karnsteins, Mircalla would never have believed that Marcia would be the one with wedding regrets.

"Because I don't want to be tied down by some old fuddy duddy whose name I can't even pronounce! I don't want to marry a man I have no feelings for." Marcia cried. "I still want to be single! I want to lead my own life! Not the life Mama and Papa picked out! I want my freedom!"

"Oh," Mircalla's voice got small as Marcia continued to explain why she was having wedding regrets. She pondered her sister's word for a moment and found out that she was right. Over the last few months, ever since the wedding was announced, Marcia had been increasingly reclusive and bitter, becoming less and less like the perfect daughter her sisters knew her to be and more and more of a woman after her own heart and not anyone or anything else's. Mama and Papa had said to ignore it, saying that Marcia just didn't know how to handle her excitement, but now Mircalla could see something different. Marcia was about to be forced into doing something she didn't want to and this something would altar her whole life and it would last until either she or the duke died, neither of which was very likely. Mircalla felt her stomach churn at the idea of her brave big sister being imprisoned. What's more, although she had only met him once, Mircalla had to be honest that she didn't even really like the man Marcia was set to marry. He was just too rude and full of himself. He was bossy and never listened to anyone else. The more Mircalla thought about it, the less she wanted Marcia to marry him. She could see where the wedding regrets were coming from.

"But it's going to happen," Marcia moaned, interrupting Mircalla's own thoughts about the matter. "I'm going to marry him and my freedom will go over to some man I don't even really like and that will be that… forever!"

"Oh," Mircalla repeated, unsure of what else to say.

"Oh, run along Mircalla," Marcia sighed. "I've said too much already about my wedding regrets and I don't want to spoil this day," she turned away from her youngest sister. Mircalla wanted to protest on several accounts, but before she could even open her mouth, Marcia had waved her off with a miserable expression and Mircalla thought better of continuing this talk.

Awhile later, Marcia and the duke stood at the altar with the priest finishing their vows.

"If there are any objections to this union, speak now or forever hold your peace," he announced loudly, then one voice cried out.

"I object!" and the whole crowd turned with a mix of amusement and horror to see a 10 year old girl mounting a pew in the back of the chapel.

Another hour later, Marcia was riding away to her new little castle and Mircalla was locked up in room, sobbing. She thought her plan would've worked. Hadn't the priest said to speak now? Apparently, that didn't include kids. Or if he did say "speak now", he didn't really mean it. Papa had been furious, dragging her away practically by the hair while Mama watched in pain. Sisters had been a mix of scared and amused while all of the duke's family looked annoyed and amused. But Marcia, the very girl Mircalla was trying to save, hadn't looked at her at all. It had been a blow that hurt almost as bad as Papa dragging her all the way back to her room and throwing her inside violently, shouting that she would be starved for three days and put under tight watch by the strictest of the nurses.

"Why though!? It's not fair! I was just trying to save Marcia!" Mircalla cried through the locked door to her bed chambers. But her words were ignored by everybody. Except one. Margreta.

"Hey kiddo!" Margreta whispered, having snuck past Mircalla's guard.

"What?" Mircalla sniffled back, sad and angry.

"We got you a treat!" Margreta answered, then she shoved an old pastry to the child. It was still somewhat warm.

"Thanks," Mircalla responded with another sniffle, but now she sounded a bit happier. She took the pastry and bit into it, moaning in pleasure.

"I also got a letter," Margreta gave her baby sister a tiny paper.

"Can't read," Mircalla said at once. It was somewhat true. Mircalla was still on her way to learning how to read, but she was actually quite intelligent and it was only laziness that kept her from trying now.

"Whatever," Margreta responded, then she read the letter to Mircalla.

Dear Mircalla,

I must say that you made quite the stir at the wedding today. I can't say that I'm proud of you, but I also can't say that I was entirely disappointed. So while I must inform you to never act so rashly again, I must also thank you for providing a bit of entertainment and I applaud your effort to help me with my wedding regrets, however misguided or poorly executed.

Love, Marcia Karnstein. (The last name was written in bold. Marcia had not surrendered to her husband's name just yet).

"Marcia!" Mircalla whimpered, finishing the last of her tiny meal. She tore the letter from Margreta and inspected it hard. "Does it really say all that?" she asked as she read the letter. It did. Every word Margreta read was true.

Mircalla began to frown. The longer she looked at the letter and recognized her older sister's print, the more painful it became to look. At last, she began to whimper again and Margreta sighed before taking the child into her arms.

"There, there. It'll be ok," she soothed and Mircalla proceeded to sob.

"I want her back! I want her back!" she wept and Margreta could only sigh.

"I don't think she'll be back," she confessed. "At least not for awhile," and Mircalla only wept harder. It did wake the guard, but as he was not skilled in the art of child care, he allowed the other, older Karnstein to comfort little Mircalla instead.


	6. New Countess

In time, however, Mircalla's grief subsided. Marcia was still gone, several days away from the Karnstein and living as a duchess in that neighboring kingdom, but Mircalla no longer missed her as much as she used to. She still had five other sisters, after all, and Marcia did make several trips back to Karnstein just to visit. Knowing that there would always be a tomorrow, the youngest Karnstein allowed life to return to normal. She continued to grow in beauty, sweetness, power, intelligence and size and nothing ever really changed for any of them.

At least not until one particularly harsh winter that struck Karnstein about three years after Marcia married off. None of the Karnstein daughters died, but their mother did and their father was unable to be there because he was busy fighting off troops from invaders from the west. Those westerners had no love for Karnstein and to hear that their countess was dead and that the winter was being especially cruel, they decided to see if they could unseat the count as well and maybe secure a bride or two. It was their plan to make the attack as swift as possible. It was to be a killing blow of an attack. Or at least, that was what they had hoped. What they forgot was that although the countess was dead, her husband was still very much alive and showed no signs of even slowing down despite the disease and the frost. In addition, as old as he was, he was still sharper than a knife and twice as bloodlusty. Instead, the moment he got word of the western kingdom's plan of attack, he suited up right away.

"Who do they think they are? Attacking Karnstein just because they think we're down and out? I'll show those fools who's down and out myself and they will begin to see just how resilient our clan is!" he growled, strapping on a ton of armor and bringing his largest, fanciest sword.

"But Papa!" Matilda pleaded with her father. "What about us?"

"What about you?" Ferenc echoed callously.

"Who is going to look after us?" she explained cautiously.

"You're old enough! Surely you can care for yourselves?!" Ferenc sneered scornfully at her. Matilda only gave him a worried look and he heaved an angry sigh. "With me and your oldest sister gone and your mother dead, you're next in line to inherit this place. You're going to be the one doing the look-outs. Am I clear?" he asked.

"Me?" Matilda squeaked. Ferenc uttered another angry sigh.

"Who else?" he snapped and Matilda had the sense not to say anything else. Instead, she only swallowed back grief, fear, and anxiety and watched her father ride away to battle while she, in some sense, ascended to the role of the new countess of Karnstein.

Ferenc had only intended to be away for a few days but it ended up becoming about half a month. In that time, while everyone else was grieving the loss of Jusztina, Matilda was trying hard to be the new countess her kingdom needed.

"Uhhh, go and fix some of the turrets!" Matilda pointed one of the workers towards the north tower. "I'm afraid the frost may have weakened the stone and if we are ever attacked, those will be vital to our chances of victory."

"Yes, your honor," the worker replied. Matilda swallowed nervously before turning to her next worker, a maid.

"Just make sure all the bed chambers are in order," she sighed. The woman nodded before darting away to do her chores. Matilda spent a good while busily handing out orders but she was still in a minor panic because she had several other things she had to do right away. They all dealt with foreign affairs and, given how things were going at the moment, foreign affairs were not the best in Karnstein.

"God, I hate this!" the temporary countess cried to herself. She was always a little afraid of her father but now there was nothing in the world she wouldn't have given in order for him to come home.

"Why don't you let me help?" a voice asked from behind Matilda. She turned to see her next youngest sister, Maria, sidling over to her.

"What do you mean?" asked Matilda, a flash of old spirit returning to her. It hurt her pride that her inferior would suggest that she needed help running Karnstein. "I am the countess here and I would say I'm doing an excellent job!"

"You are," Maria assured. "But I could help you do even better…" she began to explain how she might help her older sister. "Just let me take some of the power and burden away from you. You can still manage all of the really big stuff like trades and relationships but I can manage the staff."

"Well…" Matilda pondered the offer, totally missing the hungry look in Maria's eyes. "Ok. I guess you can help," she decided finally.

"Excellent!" Maria smiled, then without another word, she darted off to find the nearest servant she could. Meanwhile, Matilda went up to her father's study. She had a long day of paperwork ahead of her.

But at long last, Ferenc finally returned home. He was tired and injured but triumphant.

"I sent those cowards running for the hills! True, it took far longer than hoped, but we sent them off running with tails between their legs!" he bragged, panting hard as his daughters carefully led him to the sickroom. Even though he was still in one piece and was not sick yet, he did need to be treated for other wounds and checked just in case he was coming down with something.

"How many of them were there, Papa?" Maria asked, eyes glittering savagely.

"1000," Ferenc replied.

"How many did you send home?" Maria asked.

"50," Ferenc replied. The Karnsteins all laughed and cheered. Those westerners would think twice before ever coming here again.

So, the winter and the threat of war passed, but internal struggles were not over yet. Instead, Ferenc finally decided to step down from his role as a count. He was not doing this because he was willingly surrendering power. He just didn't want to have to look after all of Karnstein anymore. He wasn't exactly happy about having to post one of his daughters as the new countess, though, in case his kingdom was viewed as weak for having a female leader, but at the same time, there was one daughter that he thought would make a fair countess. It was not Matilda.

"You, daughter, are not fit for this title," the old man told Matilda. The girl in question fought hard not to break down right then. "Try as you may, it is clear to me, and everyone, that the role of countess is better suited to someone else. I relieve you of your duties. They were only temporary, after all," he said. Matilda bowed awkwardly before running off to grieve. Had she stayed, she would've learned that the sister replacing her was none other than Maria, the very girl who offered to help out in the first place.

"Do you really mean it, Papa?" Maria asked, flattered.

"Yes," Ferenc nodded sternly. "But I expect you to be better, am I understood?"

"Of course!" Maria gave him a sweet smile. She was coroneted properly that very day. Thus, Karnstein got its first new countess since Jusztina.

The reason Ferenc chose Maria was simple. Despite regretting having to surrender the throne to a woman, Ferenc had to admit that Maria was daughter that most resembled what a son should've been. She was strong, brutish, clever, authoritative, efficient and aggressive. They were traits very undesirable in a woman but, in this case, Ferenc supposed they were beneficial. It would've done more harm to his image to allow Matilda to take over because, as efficient as she was, she was too feminine for Ferenc's taste. Maria had the hot blood and short temper of a male and that was what Ferenc wanted when he was looking for a leader. Girl she may be, she had a very masculine side and that would distill any outsider from taking the Karnsteins for granted simply because of their female leader.

Maria knew all of this and that was why she considered her ascension obvious. Although she had not known until the day Ferenc came up to her and crowned her as the new countess of Karnstein, she always had a feeling it would come. She was simply too prideful and ambitious for some great role to not fall into her lap. Besides, the way she saw it, she was a way better leader than Matilda because, unlike Matilda, she had no issue bossing people around and using any means necessary to get things done. Matilda had instigated harsh punishments for the disobedient but they were nothing compared to the beatings and burnings Maria used for practically anything. She was so much like Ferenc that it was no surprise to anyone that she was his favorite.

"Excellent!" the old man rumbled as another servant was left screaming and crying for mercy as he was given 40 lashes. His only crime was accidently spilling a bit of wine on the floor, but that was enough in Maria's eyes to warrant a punishment. It would do no good to raise lazy or clumsy servants. Instead, it was better to beat the mistakes out of them as soon as possible to prevent it from ever happening again.

"Thank you, Papa," Maria gave him another treacherous smile as she observed the beatings with him. These were the kind of punishments he used to use on disobedient soldiers back in his military days and he did carry a few of them over once he finally became a count but after having his first child, Jusztina had practically forbidden him from using such barbaric methods.

"I understand that they are servants," she said calmly when Ferenc cursed her for daring to speak against his wishes. "But their screams wake the children and the blood smells foul. If you must torture them, do it in a cleaner and quieter method or do it elsewhere! I will not have my children suffer due to the carelessness of a servant. If you punish them, leave us out of it!" she cried. Although her bold words had angered Ferenc at the time, he quickly began to understand her reasoning and although violent punishments were still common in Karnstein, they had died down for awhile. Maria brought them back and Ferenc was more than happy to make them public events again. His wife was dead so she could no longer nag him and his youngest was a teenager. She was old enough to see this stuff. So the beatings continued.

But even though she was old enough, she certainly didn't enjoy it.

"Must Papa be so harsh?" Mircalla cringed almost sympathetically as her favorite nursemaid was branded in the arm for failing to finish her chores.

"It is his and Maria's wills," Margreta murmured, though she looked subdued as she held Mircalla close.

"Perhaps. But I do hate it," Mircalla whispered back, leaning upon her middle sister's shoulder.

"As do I," Margreta agreed. Then they fell silent again as the screaming finally quieted just a little.

"I miss Marcia. She wasn't this mean!" Magdalena sighed awhile later.

"So do I!" Maximiliana agreed, throwing a disgusted look at Maria as she paraded on by arrogantly. She actually had a welt under her eye where Maria had smacked her after she dared complain about the way Karnstein was being run. The others were sure one of the two would end up killing the other someday because of how much each hated the other. Maximiliana had even gone as far as to put a semi-poisonous plant in her sister's drink. It would not kill, but it would cause severe stomach pains. It was her way of getting revenge for the bruise. The fights weren't funny like they used to be when they were all still little kids. Mircalla, Margreta, Maximiliana and Magdalena all went their separate ways now, barely even bidding each other farewell before heading off to do whatever. Matilda was nowhere to be seen, still deeply hurt and angered by her father passing her by after all of the effort she put into being a good countess. Maria, however, was lounging on the throne and giving out more orders while Ferenc rested in his bed. Such was the life of Karnstein now under the iron fist of their new countess.


	7. Another New Countess

More time passed and soon, only two Karnstein children remained in the Karnstein castle. Those were the youngest two, Magdalena and Mircalla. The others had all gone out into the world in separate ways. Matilda had finally married off, ending up as a countess anyway, just in the different castle. Maria herself had been married off. It pained Ferenc to see her go but her husband was a prince. It would've been foolish to deny the request. So now Maria was a country over and bossing the people over there around with an iron fist and a silver tongue. She had not changed a bit, the only difference between then and now being her location and royal title. Margreta had also married off, moving as far away as England. Maximiliana had also since married off to some small lord a few countries off. The lord in particular died after Maximiliana conceived her third child. This left her as the sole proprietor of that castle. Or at least, it would until the deceased lord's brother could come and lay claim to the castle.

So that did leave Magdalena and Mircalla as the only Karnsteins left and they needed another new countess now.

"I guess you'll be countess," Mircalla sighed, both in envy and in weariness. "I hope I get married off soon."

"You're only 16," Magdalena reminded her younger sister.

"So? I've heard of nobles who married off at 12!" Mircalla argued half-heartedly.

"Those were just rumors. That doesn't happen that often," Magdalena waved Mircalla off.

"Whatever," the younger deadpanned, though she knew that Magdalena was right.

"Besides, if anything, I'm going to marry off first because I'm older," Magdalena added a moment later.

"What?" Mircalla snorted.

"The oldest always gets to go first!" she said. "It's how numbers work!"

"Yeah, Magdalena, I am well aware of how numbers work," Mircalla replied sarcastically. "But in case you didn't realize, just because you were born first doesn't mean you'll marry first. Besides, what about Matilda? She was technically in line for the role of countess but Papa handed that over to Maria. Remember?" the youngest Karnstein added.

"Yes, I remember, but Matilda was still countess first when Papa went away to war," Magdalena reminded.

"That wasn't a war, it was a skirmish," Mircalla argued. "It was temporary."

"Yeah, but she still went first so that means I will marry first because we always go in order!" Magdalena declared stubbornly and Mircalla let out a cruel laugh in reply. God, her sister could be a moron. Her logical was truly incredible. Mircalla couldn't wait to marry out of this wasteland.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. Instead, just after Maria finally moved out of the castle for the last time, Ferenc wasted no time in summoning Mircalla to him. He was ancient but still very much alive. In the back of her mind, Mircalla wondered if he would ever just keel over. Then she laughed at her own dark desires. She was very far from that sweet little girl she used to be. Suffering under her father and sister had changed her into something more sinister and cynical even though Magdalena had managed to retain her rather airy distance from the world around her. Mircalla sometimes wondered if she was even all there and as much as she didn't want it, there were days when Mircalla figured she would make a far better countess than Magdalena.

"Mircalla!" Ferenc snapped. "Are you listening?"

"Yes, Papa, I am sorry," the young woman bowed humbly, knowing it would appease her father. It worked and his wrath subsided.

"I was trying to tell you that you are to become the next countess of Karnstein now that everyone else is gone," he rasped. Initially, he had not wanted Mircalla to be countess because she was still too soft and sweet for his liking. As callous as she thought she was, it was all a farce. The only people she acted cynical and bitter around was her father and sister. Towards everyone else, though, except the servants, Mircalla was still very kind and adorable and enjoyable. She didn't see it, but they all did. Other nobles who visited always smiled when Mircalla was near because even though she was prone to scowls and sarcasm when she was around her remaining two kin, she was very friendly with anyone else. Visitors to Karnstein often were charmed by Mircalla's sweetness. Ferenc knew this and did not want such a woman in charge, but by now he was definitely too frail to be a count and it was either Mircalla or Magdalena.

Ferenc needed another new countess and ultimately he was going to pick Mircalla. As much as Ferenc disliked his youngest, his second youngest was far worse. She was incredibly obedient, something Ferenc did like, but she was so very brainless. Intelligence may not have been a woman's strong suit or a woman's place, in Ferenc's mind, but Magdalena was a cut above the rest. She was as hollow as a dying tree and twice as stupid. Ferenc would've rather had Mircalla in power because at least she had some sense. Besides, Ferenc told himself, as nice as Mircalla was, he could train it out of her. She was 16, still a child. There was still time and it was something Ferenc was more than happy to utilize because there was no way he'd surrender Karnstein to Magdalena or a weak woman. No, he would give Mircalla a hardened heart and then she would be even better than Maria ever was. Those were some high standards but, as far as Ferenc was concerned, they were going to happen.

"But what about Magdalena?" asked Mircalla once she absorbed what Ferenc had said.

"What about her?" the man asked coldly. "She can rot in the dungeons or go marry the first man who will be crazy enough to take her for all I care!" there was true venom in his voice as he said this and even Mircalla felt a twinge of pity for her older sister, but it didn't last. "I hate that girl. She can go die in a hole if she wishes. You are my primary concern now," he continued. He beckoned for Mircalla to come closer. "Starting right now, you are the new countess of Karnstein and I, personally, will show you how to run this place. Am I understood?" he growled.

"Yes, sir," Mircalla responded, back straight and eyes empty.

"Good," the old man rasped. "Then let's get started."


	8. Hardened Heart

Over the next year, Ferenc made good on his word to give his youngest a hardened heart as he raised her up to be a proper countess. With all the other Karnsteins gone, it was just Ferenc and Mircalla. Ferenc taught Mircalla how to be cold and cruel and he taught her how to stop caring about people beneath her. It was a sad thing to see, but Mircalla had no power over herself anymore and nobody was there to save her or stop Ferenc. So, day by day, Mircalla achieved a hardened heart and she went from the sweet little girl Karnstein used to love to a second Maria. She went from an innocent to the cold-hearted countess Ferenc desired. Mircalla no longer frowned or sulked. Instead, she grew cross or brooded. She no longer wept for those outside of the Karnstein clan. Instead, she looked at them critically or perhaps graced them with a small amount of pity. She no longer feared or felt. She became like a stone wall, unmoving and unafraid. She did not laugh, she became amused. She did not deliver justice, she made examples. She had changed entirely and the servants were now utterly terrified of her. She had always been relatively indifferent towards them and never had any problem hurting or manipulating them before. Now, though, she took pleasure in causing as much pain as she could. She punished them severely. The people she once ignored or would torment in small ways became her favorite victims and they despised it.

Her punishments became notoriously harsh. Being forced to watch them all made Mircalla harder and harder every day until she could watch floggings and burnings with ease. She could smile and laugh as people screamed and bled. She didn't flinch when a child was the one on the whipping post. She did not cry or beg when it was an old friend being tortured or humiliated. Instead, she would watch and manage the proceedings with callous indifference and anyone who dared remark on this would be punished just as heartily as the poor sap whose punishment she had orchestrated and was no overseeing. She still was not as bloodlusty as Maria, but her coldness and apathy was just as terrifying. It was like comparing fire to ice. Although they were very different, both of them were very deadly and the whole castle felt their burn. Maria might have been gone, but Mircalla didn't look like she was going anywhere for awhile and this frightened them all.

The servants no longer saw Mircalla as a countess to be respected. Instead, she was a tyrant to be feared. Her thirst for blood terrified them all. Mircalla did not care. As far as she was concerned, they were only slaves. They did not matter the way she, a special and noble countess, did. As far as she was concerned, she could do whatever she pleased with the servants because that was all they were. She had never been fond of any of them. The only difference was now, she was able to attack them more directly when they displeased her. Ferenc found this pleasing.

"You aren't Maria," he said one day when Mircalla was almost 17. "But you are a countess!" he finished. He clapped her proudly on the back. Mircalla only gave him a dry smile in return. Magdalena was married off shortly thereafter but it happened so quickly and with such little fanfare that Mircalla didn't even realize the girl was gone until a day or two after it all happened.

"Where is Magdalena?" the countess asked her father over dinner one night.

"Married off to some baronet just south of our kingdom," Ferenc responded, not even looking up from his plate. Mircalla offered no verbal reply. Just so long as she knew, it did not matter what had become of her idiotic sister. That sister, however, was incredibly hurt by all these proceedings. To have her title stolen entirely away from her then to be ignored by everyone then to be married off to the first man who asked was a little less than fun. As far as she knew, her family wasn't even going to attend the wedding. She cried herself to sleep that first night away from Karnstein. As cruel and abusive as her family had been, she didn't really like it here in this new castle and she wanted to go home. Her husband was not mean, but she just didn't like him but it was clear that nobody was going to come rescue her and bring her home. She hated her life.

Magdalena was totally correct, too. Neither Ferenc nor Mircalla made any effort to reach out to Magdalena once she left Karnstein. Instead, both were selfishly wrapped up in their own lives, uncaring of anything or anyone else.

"You fool!" Mircalla snarled at the servant who spilled wine over her new dress in front of one of her newest lovers.

"Oh! Countess Karnstein! Forgive me, please!" the servant trembled, falling to her knees.

"NO!" Mircalla jumped up and slammed her fist on the table. "You shall be punished!" she roared. Then, at once, guards sprung up and apprehended the sobbing servant.

"Where do you want her?" the leader of the guards asked.

"Take her to the dungeon," Mircalla spat, eyes full of wrath.

"Yes, Countess," he responded, then he and one other guard carried the servant off to be punished. It would be whips or finger screws, based on Mircalla's discretion. But that judgment wouldn't pass until later. Mircalla liked to inspire fear into her victims, so she kept them in suspense.

A few hours later, though, Mircalla finally gave the judgment. Finger screws it was! That servant would be useless for the next month.

"Good riddance! The fool!" Mircalla spat as the servant was tossed at her feet, passed out from pain with her fingers bloody, bone sticking out from eight of them. Others trapped in the dungeon trembled and moved further into their cells. It was strange and sad to see sweet little Mircalla turning into such a writhing fiend with so little empathy. What happened to the playful, languid girl who raced the cavernous halls of Karnstein? Well, Ferenc had changed her. He had taken her and turned her not quite into a monster of his caliber, but into something with cruelty, disdain and entitlement. He had given her a hardened heart and it was with a hardened heart that Mircalla viewed these awful punishments.

When the punishment was over, however, Mircalla left without a sound and made her way to bed with her newest lover who found her ferocity deeply attractive. But there was no true love between them because of Mircalla's hardened heart, so it did not take long for her to tire of him and move onto her next passion. She always was stuck in some one great romance or another. This man was just another name in a long list of her lovers whom she had bedded with. Her father, as old as he was, had no idea about any of her trysts but frankly, she wouldn't have cared if he did find out. She was the countess, she got to call the shots. If she wanted to continue sleeping with these men, she would do so. Even if she only kept these men around for one night, it was always a good night. Her father slept in a very large and luxurious room. A few doors down, another man lay in bed. With him was his hostess and lover, the vicious countess of Karnstein. Any servant who ever dared hint that he or she knew about these affairs was tortured into silence, tongue and/or teeth removed.


	9. Vordenberg

But after awhile of Mircalla's sad existence with only a few lovers here and there to act as outlets to her otherwise callous and hateful deeds, something genuinely good finally happened to the girl.

"We've got message from a Baron Vordenberg that his son would like to court you," Ferenc announced one morning. Mircalla looked stunned and flattered. A suitor at last! Her past few lovers had simply been fools from court which she had various flings with. This was one of the first men to call on her first and this fellow wasn't some man she dragged up from the sewage. This was an actual noble from out of the kingdom of Karnstein.

"Will you accept?" she asked hopefully. Ferenc nodded back with determined eyes.

"The Baron should be here within the next few days," he said and Mircalla gave a shy little grin that was so unlike her. Maybe her hardened heart wasn't as hard as she thought…Ferenc only rolled his eyes, his own mood good enough that his daughter's foolish reactions didn't bother him.

Three days later, a charming young man with a round and stubby father entered the Karnstein castle.

"Ah! Barons Hans and Cornelius!" Ferenc greeted the Vordenbergs.

"Count Ferenc!" they responded happily. The older baron clapped Ferenc in a hug while the younger bowed politely.

"Fine lad!" Ferenc nodded approvingly as he looked at the boy. "You have come to court my daughter?"

"Yes, sir," Cornelius replied softly. He was only a bit older than Mircalla.

"She is waiting in the main hall," Ferenc responded, then he led the Vordenbergs inside.

Mircalla and Cornelius became very close very fast. She found him charming and he found her enticing. For the first time in almost a year, Mircalla was truly happy.

"You enjoy reading?" Cornelius asked, watching the beautiful young countess study her manuscript closely.

"Yes," Mircalla responded. "It's the only thing that keeps me from going mad sometimes."

"Mad?" Cornelius looked concerned and Mircalla chuckled affectionately.

"It is only my Papa. He can be a little overbearing and unconcerned with the world. Sometimes, these books are my only friends," she said.

"Oh. I know the feeling well," Cornelius looked at Mircalla sadly.

"Do you?" she asked in surprise, looking away from her book.

"Yes," Cornelius said. "I have four brothers, two older and one younger. They all have married off and made names for themselves. I still live at home with my father," he explained. He didn't need to say more for Mircalla to understand. Doubtless, he felt that books were better company than anything or anyone else because his brothers would bully him for being such a baby while his father, as well-meant as he was, was a little… daft. He seemed blind to his third son's suffering.

"Do not worry," Mircalla said. "I have six older sisters, all of whom have left Karnstein. I am the only one left and I fear it shall always be so."

"Well perhaps I will stay," Cornelius replied smoothly and Mircalla knew she was in love.

Love. What a strange thing. After a bit over a year being the countess of Karnstein, Mircalla had almost forgotten what that was. She certainly never received any from her father or the lowly servants of the castle and no visitor ever made any attempt to stay or return after their first trip. Mircalla didn't count her various lovers either because that was purely physical. She only slept with them for the thrill and the physical satisfaction, not because she actually felt anything for them. Oh, perhaps some of them were genuine flames, but the feelings were never reciprocated. With Cornelius, however, she felt a true affection. Mircalla genuinely liked this Vordenberg boy and she decided that meeting him was one of the best things to happen to her in quite awhile. Cornelius felt the same, having been a moderate and plain boy his whole life, but Mircalla was amazing and gorgeous and she made him feel special. It was something new and exciting and he was glad he got to share it with her.

"Perhaps you can be my baroness!" the boy joked.

"Baroness Karnstein," Mircalla grinned dryly. "Perhaps you can be my count. I quite liked my old title."

"You're right," Cornelius grinned. "Countess Karnstein sounds better."

"But perhaps for you, I could be a baroness," Mircalla answered next and Cornelius began to blush hotly.

So for a few happy months, Mircalla and Cornelius grew ever closer until it seemed official. Ferenc and Hans had pretty much already married them off, having made wedding plans and house arrangements that Cornelius would move in with Mircalla and both would continue the Karnstein line, but now the lovers in question were starting to consider it too.

"Excellent!" Ferenc clapped darkly as the dowry was finished. "My daughter will be a married and proper countess before her 18th birthday!"

"Excellent indeed!" Hans replied, though his joy was a bit more genuine. He was truly glad that his son was getting married and rising through the ranks. Besides, Mircalla was a beautiful, friendly, clever girl. What more could any man ask for in a daughter in law? So the deal was set. All that remained was for Cornelius to actually propose. Cornelius, however, insisted that they wait just a bit longer.

For the fathers, the wait was terrible. Ferenc wanted Mircalla off producing heirs at once and even Hans was keen on seeing his youngest being married off. But the lovers would not be rushed. By why not? Well, it was because of love. Love was strange and nobody understood it. Cornelius didn't even know why he was waiting. He just knew that it felt right. He didn't want to rush things with Mircalla. Instead, he wanted to take it slow, perhaps to show her that he could be patient and she, herself, was in no rush either.

"Usually, Papa says I'm impatient, indulgent, impulsive and impotent," she confessed. "But with you, I feel calm. Serene, even!"

"Perhaps, love, it is because your Papa is a doddering old sot," Cornelius suggested with a smirk.

"Don't!" Mircalla swatted his arm, but was laughing, showing off a side of her nobody else had seen since her early days.

"Be glad I am not going to wait too very long to ask," Cornelius replied with a wink.

"Don't worry, love, the way I see it, you already have," Mircalla grinned seductively and Cornelius' boyish eyes lit up at the implications. It was not their first time, but it was no less enjoyable now than any other time before.

So time passed and the two royal children grew ever closer and Mircalla's ability to love slowly returned to her. She suddenly became blind and deaf to her fathers, intent only upon keeping Cornelius close. As far as she was concerned, he belonged to her. She never thought of her sisters anymore. She was happy with this Vordenberg boy, whether she'd be his baroness or countess.


	10. Mircalla's Birthday Ball

At last, a big day arrived. It was Countess Karnstein's 18th birthday and a ball was being thrown in honor of it. People from all over the kingdom and the kingdoms of the sisters of Karnstein were in attendance. It was a gorgeous and impressive party with nothing quite so amazing having occurred at the darkened castle of Karnstein in several years.

"Marcia, Matilda, Maria, Margreta, Maximiliana, Magdalena!" Mircalla exclaimed in delight as she saw her sisters' carriage pull up. She ran ahead to greet them, ignoring the gentle chastisement behind her as she ran in her skirts. The youngest Karnstein may not have thought about her sisters very often, but seeing them again reignited an old flame within her heart and suddenly, she was only six years old again, running through the castle halls as she tried to find her family. Suddenly, she was happy and young and free. For all of her cruelty and selfishness, Mircalla was not without the capacity to love. She ran over to the carriage and threw open the door.

"Oh my God!" the young woman stepped back in confusion and fear when she realized that almost all of her sisters were crying, but it was not a good crying. They all looked miserable and haunted. The countess quickly took a headcount and realized that one sister was missing.

"Where's Magdalena?" Mircalla's concern grew when Margreta, Maximiliana and Matilda began crying even harder.

"She's dead," Marcia answered. Her voice was empty and bitter but tears glittered in her dark eyes.

"Dead?" Mircalla barely could force out a whisper. The night was suddenly far colder than before.

"We'd better go inside," Margreta pleaded. Mircalla nodded at once and gestured for her sisters to follow her in. All of the happiness of the reunion had vanished in a flash and Mircalla barely even breathed as she led her sisters into a side chamber where they could speak privately.

"What happened?" the countess asked the moment the door was shut behind them all.

"It was a suicide," Marcia replied, voice still hollow.

"Suicide?" Mircalla choked. Marcia nodded and then she explained. The way things were planned out, the sisters were each going to meet up at Magdalena's home castle because it was the one closest to Karnstein. Once there, they were going to ride together to Karnstein. That way, every sister could be reunited all at once. Marcia arrived at Magdalena's castle first but was horrified to find her sister dead in her bed. The girl's wrists were slashed open wide and so much blood had been lost that it created a large puddle that almost reached the window by the bed. It was a graphic sight that severely scarred Marcia and her cry of despair and terror woke up that entire wing of the castle. They all came running in but left later with matching expressions of horror that this young lady had taken her own life so suddenly and so secretly. How had nobody noticed until now?

"I asked the servants," Marcia said lowly, slowly. "They said that she had claimed she needed to rest. I guess nobody understood what 'rest' meant this time…" she trailed off and Mircalla swore she could see her sister's corpse still within Marcia's unseeing eyes.

"The rest of us arrived within the days to follow," Margreta continued. "We each were treated to the sight of our dead sister. We almost didn't come back to Karnstein tonight, but we knew we couldn't miss it. We couldn't miss your birthday. We're just sorry we have come with bad tidings instead of good ones…" then she trailed off as well. Mircalla could only shake her head. As proud and unmoving as she was, even she was not immune to surprises and to hear that one of her sisters was dead, by her own hand no less, was earth-shattering.

"Wow," she choked out at last. "I never realized…I never thought…"

"Nor did we," Matilda tried to comfort the girl. "None of us imagined Magdalena having the intelligence or the pain necessary to end her own life."

"Clearly she did," Maria grunted. Her voice was unnaturally sharp when compared to everyone else's but, for once, nobody bothered criticizing her for it. Instead, they were all silently mourning their dead sister.

But not even the death of Magdalena couldn't kill Mircalla's spirit. As much pain and shock, and even guilt, as Mircalla felt, she still had a party to attend to. She could not break down now. So she made a pact with her sisters that a proper funeral would be held eventually but for tonight, not a word was to be breathed to anyone. This party had to go off without a hitch, then the walls could come down and they could properly mourn Magdalena. The others agreed to it and, plastering false smiles upon their lovely faces, they exited that secret chamber and returned to the ballroom where the big party was taking place. It was really was a magnificent sight despite the gloominess the six living Karnsteins were feeling. But after the last few tears were shed, the party went into full swing and there was dinner and dancing all through the night.

During the rapturous event, Mircalla caught sight of her family together again and even though Mama and Magdalena were missing, Mircalla's heart still felt complete. She hadn't felt this way since she was 10 years old, back when Marcia got married and left them all behind. The young countess surveyed the room, trying to find each of her sisters. Marcia was reuniting with old friends. Maria was skirting around some of the higher up nobles with a bottle of fine liquor in her hands, Margreta was dancing with Maximiliana, both of them tripping over each other's feet, and Matilda was busy taking a peek at their father. He sat upon the throne, concealing his age by pretending that he was overseeing the party. Age had not taken his pride or his cunning away. It really was a lovely night.

But Mircalla's Birthday Ball did not end on the high note everybody hoped it would. The beginning of the end was nice, with Cornelius finally proposing and Mircalla saying yes, which ensured another ball sometime in the future, but that was about it. The rest of the ball was spent celebrating and congratulating the two fiancées as more songs and liquor were passed around, but once it was time to head to bed, everything turned dark. Mircalla retired to her own chambers while Cornelius went to his and Mircalla had only just started to fall asleep, head still buzzing with drink and song, when two red eyes peered down at her from the rafters.

"What the-?" Mircalla rasped, voice heavy with exhaustion. She was jolted awake by the two red eyes but she could only watch in silent horror as something oily and black slipped down from the rafters and right to her bedside where it rose up to an impossible height. What terrified the girl most of all, however, was that when the tall shadow gained a face, Mircalla found herself staring into the dead eyes of Magdalena Karnstein.

"Magdalena?" Mircalla croaked once the shadow started to look human.

"Mircalla Karnstein!" came the dry reply. "Thou hast taken from me every bit of happiness that should have rightfully been mine and thou shalt payest for what thou did!" Magdalena now had a terrible, ethereal voice, very different from the shy and awkward one she had when she was still alive. Mircalla could only tremble, mouth opened but nothing coming out of it. "Thou hast taken my title and my pride and my joy and even my very life, so I shalt exact my revenge upon thee and let thy knowest of mine suffering. Thou shalt feel my pain too…"

Then before Mircalla could even comprehend what Magdalena had just said, she felt two needles sink deep into her breast. The pain got worse every moment until Mircalla felt light-headed. This dizziness pervaded her mind and overpowered the pinching, poking sensation until the world went dark, her last vision being of Magdalena's unusually sharp teeth.


	11. A Night of Wonders

Mircalla's party had started from the morning and delved on deep into the night, but even after the sun had set, the adventure was far from over. Instead, what followed was a night of wonders. After Magdalena's specter had left Mircalla, Mircalla's sense slowly but surely returned to her. She could still feel a stinging burn in her neck but could not move to alleviate the pain. Instead, she could only feel herself getting weaker as the tall shadow of Magdalena pulled away.

"Dearest sister, thou shalt finally know of mine," she hissed darkly. "And I hope that it punisheth thou for all thy life…" she added with a growl. Mircalla could only stare up at her in pain. Magdalena continued to stare back down at her for a moment more before vanishing. Right before Mircalla's very eyes, Magdalena simply vanished completely, not a trace of her to be seen anywhere. Mircalla's strength continued to wane as the seconds passed until she too, like Magdalena, had simply vanished entirely.

The next thing Mircalla was aware of was screaming. All voices of all timbres were screaming. They were screaming her name, screaming for help, screaming prayers, screaming in terror. It was nothing but an orchestra of sounds. It was loud and Mircalla longed for it to all stop and go away, but she was still paralyzed, now unable to open her eyes. She could feel everything. She could feel people touching her frantically and poking and prodding her, but she was unable to respond to any of it. She was totally aware of her surroundings but unable to do a thing about it. She had no way of telling everyone she was ok. She no way of demanding for them to leave her alone. All she could do was lie there like a corpse as the living people around her panicked at and about her.

At last, however, a priest arrived. She felt his presence before she heard him, then he began to chant an age-old prayer that she, herself, had spoken on many occasions. Even on the day she became a countess, Mircalla had chanted this prayer and although her level of faith in the prayer had waxed and waned through the years, hearing it now burned her. It caused her great physical pain and it was finally enough to set her free. She could feel her senses of dread, distress, disgust and disdain rising until she began to twitch. She broke out of her paralysis and tremble in fear and pain, trying to get the priest to cease his prayers and blessings. But it was dark. Even the lamps weren't enough and the priest failed to see Mircalla begin to twitch. Instead, his old voice continued its wavery chant while Mircalla's pain continued to escalate and her twitches grew more frequent.

At last, the priest made the sign of the cross upon Mircalla, slipping a little iron cross into her grasp. The moment his fingers and the cold metal touched Mircalla, however, it was over. Mircalla jumped up like a singed cat with a cry of pain that was almost unholy to hear. She cried out in agony, throwing the cross far away from herself as she hopped up. She was suddenly able to move again and she was even more swift and agile than ever before. She darted around the room wildly, just as frantic as her family and servants who were all in horror to see Mircalla suddenly literally climbing the rafters and snarling in wrath and agony. Then Mircalla gradually grew aware of another heightened sense in her. Smell. And everything smelled so good and she was so very thirsty…

Mircalla went on a mindless rampage through her own castle, tearing apart and turning into a red mist whatever crossed her path. Fists, fingers, nail and teeth, or rather, fangs, were out and Mircalla tore through flesh and bone to get what she wanted. She killed anyone in her way, man, woman or child. She sank her teeth/fangs into skin. She pierced all the way through to the veins and let the liquid fire, the life essence, fill her mouth and throat and slide down hotly. It burned a satisfying trail down and only made her hungrier and hungrier. It was sweeter and thicker than warm milk or even the finest of wines in the world.

"Back! Demon! Back!" the priest came out of nowhere, waving his cross wildly and crying to God. Mircalla screeched an inhuman cry once more and slammed her fists over her ears. The priest only grew more incensed and stepped forward while Mircalla backed up.

"You unholy creature! We shall cast you back from the pits from whence you came!" the priest continued, still screaming and praying and waving his cross at Mircalla. Mircalla continued to step back but the priest didn't care. Instead, he finally took a lunge at Mircalla. On reflex, the poor young lady lashed out and broke the man's arm, sending the cross to the ground. The priest screamed in pain and others answered his cry, people of all kinds rushing in with arms and armor.

"NO! NOOOO!" Mircalla gave another unholy howl of wrath, so lost in bloodlust and power that she couldn't speak. Instead, she continued to attack, expertly defeating anybody who came her way until the whole night was red.

The soldiers chased Mircalla all around Karnstein and she went from fleeing to fighting, suddenly lashing back out and killing them all.

"Mircalla! Stop!" Marcia pleaded, having finally understood what was going on. While the other sisters either ran or hid, she came out and joined in the frantic chase for Mircalla. She finally found the girl busily devouring a soldier. She reached out to her younger sister and tried to persuade her but Mircalla only let out a red-mouthed roar before running away.

Maria and Maximiliana were the next sisters to find Mircalla, but they took a more physical approach to the situation. Both were wielding the swords of a fallen soldier and Maria managed to strike Mircalla, leaving a gnash on her face. Mircalla was more than happy to return the favor, slashing her sister's face open and damaging an eye in the process. Maximiliana quickly stepped to her sister's defense. Despite their past bad blood, Maximiliana was not going to let Maria die. Instead, she raised her own sword and swung in a defensive move. The pair engaged in a short sparring session before more guards came up from behind Maximiliana. Seeing that she was outnumbered, Mircalla went running again. This time, however, she ran outside and away from the castle.

Margreta was already ready for this, though, having assembled a small squadron to pursue Mircalla on horseback.

"Charge!" she shouted as she saw Mircalla slip from a window high above the ground. The people mounted behind her echoed the cry and they all lurched forward on horseback, weapons drawn as they went after the countess of Karnstein. So Mircalla was fighting against her entire clan and castle, soldiers on the inside and out trying to catch her. Finally, as much as it hurt Mircalla's pride, she gave up. She felt into a purely defensive mode and stopped attacking, choosing instead just to vanish into the night when nobody was looking. She wanted dearly to kill one last person but she had the good sense to let it go and chose instead to just run and never look back. She escaped successfully and was not seen again.

"Tonight has been a night of wonders!" the priest declared, limping out into the moonlit courtyard to see nothing.

"Indeed!" Margreta cried, trembling violently as she urged her horse towards the wounded man.

"What shall we do?!" Maximilian exclaimed, waving her sword valiantly despite her exhaustion.

"We must find her! And we must kill her!" Ferenc answered. He was covered in blood, having actively taken blows at his youngest.

"What?! No!" Cornelius came stumbling out after, also covered in blood, though he had taken no blows against his wife.

"What do you mean no?!" Hans snapped dangerously, turning on his son. "Did you not see what she did? What she had become!?"

"Perhaps she can be saved!" Cornelius pleaded. The others began to frown, but Mircalla's sisters nodded. Marcia even dared to touch Cornelius' arm, a silent exchange passing between them.

"So be it," Cornelius suddenly changed his temperament. He sheathed his sword quietly. "If you really think she is lost, I suppose I cannot argue with it. But know that I am still not happy about it!" the young man turned away quickly, as though to hide tears, then he went running back into the castle. Hans watched him go with a pained look while Ferenc continued to scowl into the night.

"Tonight certainly has been a night of wonders," he growled. "But I swear that I will kill that fiend before it is out!"

"Papa, perhaps it is better to attend to the wounded first," Matilda suggested, finally crawling out of the woodworks. She had been a pursuer on foot and had ended up getting trapped in a hallway that Mircalla brought down on her head by beating in part of the wall. She and everyone else in the collapsed hallway managed to survive but, so far, only she had escaped. Ferenc scowled fiercely at her but he did finally yield.

"So be it," he growled. "I will hunt the monster down in the morning. But for now, let us clean the mess it made," he paused, looking around at the carnage and chaos Mircalla left in her wake. "Tonight been a night of wonders and we must clean it up first, but I fear this is only the beginning."


	12. Vampire Hunt

What ensued was a vampire hunt. Over the next fortnight, Ferenc and Hans both sent their men out in spades, hoping to kill Mircalla.

"She has become a demon!" Ferenc boomed to his army. "She must be stopped and killed at once! Any man who can bring me her head shall be rewarded beyond his wildest dreams!" he said, and his men went into a frenzy upon hearing such a promise. Their bloodlust was as violent as Mircalla's had been just one night ago. Meanwhile, even Hans was beside himself.

"This innocent young girl has been possessed and now she must be put to death, lest she infect any of the rest of us!" he cried. "So to my brave soldiers, go forth with strength and speed and bring me this monster's head! Protect us all!" he cried, waving his chubby arms.

Not everyone was in favor of the vampire hunt, though. Marcia, Maximiliana, Margreta and Cornelius were the exceptions. Sadly, only Maximiliana, Margreta and Cornelius were able to actively work against it. Marcia had a kingdom to return to. Maximiliana had a brother in law who had pretty much stripped away all her power and Margreta could leave her castle with her husband as it had been before she married him. Marcia left as soon as she could, headed back home, but not before wishing Maximiliana and Margreta luck. They exchanged the farewell before running off to find Cornelius. If they were going to save Mircalla, they had to act fast.

"Once we find her, we convince her that we're friends and we see if we can save her somehow," Margreta said.

"Agreed," Cornelius and Maximiliana said in unison.

"Good," Margreta nodded darkly. "I will search here, Cornelius, you search your home and Maximiliana, you search every spot in between."

"Yes, Ma'am," they repeated together again, then each of the three ran their separate ways and the vampire hunt was on.

But that fortnight was in vain and not a trace of Mircalla came up anywhere. Instead, she came to them… She came to Margreta first, in a dream. The young woman was actually back at Magdalena's castle now, wondering if maybe Magdalena's suicide had driven Mircalla to such madness, but nothing turned up. At least not at first. But Margreta had scarcely fallen asleep when Mircalla arrived in all her vampiric glory.

"Sister," Mircalla began. Margreta shot up in fear.

"Mircalla?" she asked hoarsely.

"Tis I," Mircalla nodded.

"What are you doing here? Where have you been?" Margreta was afraid, but her voice showed only true concern for Mircalla. This was enough to soothe Mircalla's wrath and she chose to answer truthfully.

"I have been turned, as you know. But by whom is the real question. I was turned by the girl upon whose bed you now rest," Mircalla said.

"Magdalena?" Margreta shook her head in awe. "But she's dead!"

"Suicide victims can become vampires," Mircalla explained with a shrug.

"But why you?" Margreta was still confused and terrified.

"Because I took her title from her," Mircalla responded flatly, then she told Margreta about her ascension to countess.

"So Magdalena killed herself because we all ignored and bullied her too much and then she accidently came back as a vampire and her first course of action was to kill you in revenge?" Margreta asked finally, trying to understand it all.

"Yes," Mircalla nodded solemnly.

"But that's stupid!" Margreta argued. "Why not kill Papa? This was all his fault anyway! Why you? You're innocent!"

"Sadly, I am not," Mircalla disagreed with a genuine frown. "I took her position willingly and scoffed when she was cast aside. I was just as mean and indifferent to her as you or Papa or anyone else ever was. I suppose I deserve what she did to me…"

"Don't say that!" Margreta interrupted.

"But she must be stopped," Mircalla continued, raising her hand for silence. "Magdalena must be stopped. To leave her the way she is would be to leave a plague upon this kingdom more deadly than any disease we've ever faced before."

"But what about you?" asked Margreta.

"Me? You can save me. If you kill her, you can save me. You can undo this vampire curse if you kill her," Mircalla replied. Mircalla's serious face changed into one of genuine fear.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Margreta.

"I must go. The night wanes and I dare not stay around in case the vampire hunt draws near," Mircalla whispered, then before Margreta could call out to her again, she was gone. Margreta woke up at once, totally alone in Magdalena's bed. There was not a trace of Mircalla anywhere.

The next day, Margreta set out to find Maximilian and Cornelius and the moment she found them, she told them about Mircalla.

"Well she moves fast," Cornelius remarked in dry humor, though he looked much better now knowing that his beloved was somewhat ok.

"But so must we," Margreta said. "I don't feel safe telling Papa that another one of his brood is a vampire, but we must catch Magdalena!"

"Agreed," Cornelius said. "But where do we look?" he asked. Then his eyes widened. "Wait, you don't think she's hunting the rest of the family?"

"Perhaps," Margreta replied. It was a terrifying thought but it made sense. Magdalena had always been the family outcast so it would make sense that she would try to pick off her family one at a time. In what order she would attack was unknown, but it made sense that she would simply try to kill every Karnstein alive to get her revenge. But at least that gave the poor trio a start.

"We'll try to each spend time with the remaining Karnsteins and keep an eye out for Magdalena," said Margreta and the others agreed with her once more. Eventually, it was decided Cornelius would watch Maria while Maximiliana would watch Marcia and then Margreta would watch Matilda. So, with every Karnstein being watched by the anti-vampire hunters, the search for Mircalla continued. Neither Margreta nor Maximiliana personally minded if Magdalena killed their father, but Magdalena still had to be stopped.

"Best of luck!" Margreta called to Cornelius and Maximiliana as the trio split up again, this time to the other three Karnstein girls.

"Best of luck," the two replied solemnly, then the three road off each in their own way, racing to protect their family.

From all sides, a battle was raging. Hans and Ferenc led a vicious, violent search across Karnstein with scores of men at their bidding. Meanwhile, Margreta, Maximiliana and Cornelius tried to find a way to capture Magdalena. At the same time, the object of the vampire hunt was watching, lurking. She smirked in amusement as her family attempt to find her, but they never would because she was hidden too well. Instead, she only continued to watch as they prayed and burned everything in their way only to find nothing once the ash settled. She was cruel and sadistic. The other three, her allies, however, received a different woman. Sometimes, when she did take time to visit them, she would help them through dreams, comforting and confiding in them, helping them research a way to kill Magdalena. In times like those, she returned to something resembling her old, sweet self, racing around bookshelves as they read up on vampire lore. But once those nights were over, Mircalla would vanish once more.


	13. The Fall of Magdalena

The vampire hunt still took awhile to reach its end. As hard as everyone tried, no progress was ever made. Of course, Mircalla easily evaded her father and his army, but finding Magdalena was proving harder than expected. Not even Mircalla ever caught so much as a glimpse of her and she was a vampire. It should've been easy, but it wasn't.

"Looks like our years of ignoring Magdalena has given her the skill needed to escape us," Margreta muttered bitterly when Mircalla visited her in another dream only to reveal that she was still unsuccessful. The same could be said for Margreta and her friends. The trio did continue to try and find Magdalena and save Mircalla, but they were no more successful than anyone else.

At one point, Maximiliana did find some papers that used to belong to Magdalena and after showing them to Margreta and Cornelius, a few tears were shed because those papers were actually journal entries and they were all quite tragic. For all of Magdalena's absentminded ways, she was still a human with thoughts and feelings and the abuse and neglect she had suffered because of her ignorant and uncaring family had clearly left its mark. In every piece of writing she had tucked away into a secret part of her room, she complained about her cruel family and longed for one far kinder and more open to someone like her. It was still a hard pill to swallow that sweet, stupid little Magdalena might've been the true monster all along, but the more research the trio put into Magdalena, the more it made sense.

"I never realized…" Margreta whimpered, wiping dark eyes as she set aside another one of Magdalena's unhappy letters.

"Nobody did," Cornelius tried to console his sister in law.

"But that's no excuse," Margreta replied. "Now because of us, she and Mircalla both are dead."

"But we can fix things," Cornelius continued to encourage. "All we need to do is find Magdalena and then we can put this whole thing to rest!"

"You make it sound easy," Maximilian sighed.

"It is!" the man promised. "Vampire or not, even Magdalena has limits and provided death hasn't changed her wit, all we need to do it outwit her!"

"Be careful," Margreta warned. "The last time we wanted to outwit Margreta, she far outwitted us."

"Yes, perhaps. But now that we know more about her and how she things, we have a new bit of insight! We know her story. Maybe we know how to get to her now," the young baron reminded his friend. Margreta slowly started to see his point and at last, a plan took shape.

"You have a plan?" Maximiliana asked when Margreta called her in to talk.

"Yes," her older sister replied. Then she explained.

"What!? No! Are you mad?!" Cornelius cried once Margreta finished.

"Perhaps," Margreta said with a smirk, but then her face grew stern again. "But unless you have a better plan…"

"I don't," Cornelius said quickly. "I just don't think this is the best idea…"

"Nor do I," Maximiliana confessed with a cringe. "But I agree with my sister. This may be our only hope."

"So be it then," Cornelius bowed slightly. "What will you have me do?"

The next night, beneath the full moon, the trio pretended to celebrate the one-month anniversary of Magdalena's death. Just as planned, it lured Magdalena out in all her vampiric wrath.

"Dost thou dare mock me in my pain?! Dost thou dare mock my woes?!" she howled. "For thy impudence, thou shalt suffer a damning wrath most nightmarish to behold!" she finished. Then she reared back, pale face seeming whiter than the moon as her eyes flashed blood red. She lunged upon the trio with a horrific strength, but as this was all part of a plan, the trio was ready. Cornelius jumped up with a razor sharp knife while Maximilian cast a net over the young vampire and Margreta stood nearby with garlic, crosses, stakes and silver in her hands. Magdalena shrieked, having not expected the ambush. Thus was the fall of Magdalena.

"HA! We did it!" the trio cheered, celebrating the fall of Magdalena. Their cunning plan had worked and Magdalena was finally, finally captured. Margreta quickly spread garlic and salt around Magdalena's writhing, angry form. She continued to spit vile curses upon them, but they cared not, for they had won. They had caught Magdalena!

But their celebration did not last long because, without even being called upon, Mircalla appeared before them all, looking even more frightening than Magdalena had.

"Magdalena Karnstein…" Mircalla's voice was low and slow. A languid yet hateful fire burned in her dark eyes. Magdalena trembled in the net, cowering beneath the wrathful, vengeful visage of her youngest sister.

"Mircalla! What hast brought thou here?" she squeaked, former opulence and terror lost to Mircalla's far surpassing strength and power.

"You have, dear sister," Mircalla replied, voice still flat and firm. "You wished to destroy me, did you not? You wished to usurp my title and take back what you believed to be rightfully yours?" she waited coldly for an answer and Magdalena was finally bullied into one.

"Yes," she squeaked. Mircalla gave a cruel, triumphant smirk that frightened them all yet seemed so characteristic of her.

"Good. It is good to know that you know your place. Below me. And you admit your crimes of treason?" she purred.

"Treason?" Margreta rasped in fear. "Mircalla, we were going to avenge you and fix all this! What are you doing?"

"I am doing just that, dear sister," Mircalla hummed in a matter-of-fact way before lunging at Magdalena faster than any of them could blink. All they heard then was a horrific screaming from Magdalena, desperate and shrill.

"Have mercy! Have mercy! Let me gooooo! Please!" but Mircalla only snarled over her, turning into a giant black cat as she ravaged the poor girl to death, refusing to stop until Magdalena had taken her last death throe.

Only then did Mircalla cease her vicious attack and rise again, the remains of her work visible beneath the full moon. All that remained of poor, stupid, vicious Magdalena were severed limbs spattered in sanguine liquid. Thus was the fall of Magdalena. Mircalla, however, was only growing stronger and taller, a strange light entering her eyes.

"I have triumphed," she said softly. "I have vanquished my creator and have inherited her power. Nothing can stop me now…" then before any of her friends could blink, she vanished like she had never been there.

"What do we do now!?" Cornelius despaired first as he knelt beside Magdalena's bloody remains. Though he had never known the girl himself, he remembered Mircalla constantly talking about how stupid she was. Back then, it was funny, now it wasn't. To see Magdalena's remains scattered so carelessly, bathed in their own blood, wasn't funny. It was tragic. And the fact that Mircalla was the one to do this and with so much contempt was sickening. Sure, Mircalla had no love for any of her sisters, especially not stupid Magdalena, but surely even she could've scraped up some mercy for the poor victim of suicide and killed her quickly. Such a torturous death had not been deserved, everybody agreed. But Mircalla delivered it anyway. Speaking of which, where was she? While Margreta and Maximilian prayed over Magdalena's remains, Cornelius stood and looked around. Mircalla was nowhere to be seen. Once again, she had escaped them, but this time, this seemed more permanent.


	14. Planning

Even after Mircalla had vanished that night, the trio of humans stood trembling.

"She did it. She really did it," Margreta rasped. "She killed Magdalena…" the middle Karnstein child wasn't sure what frightened her more, Magdalena's demise, its propagator, or the violence with which it was propagated.

"Isn't this what we wanted?" Maximiliana asked feebly, though she already knew the answer. Initially, she had only joined the vampire hunt because it seemed fun and she had always wanted to go on some fantastic adventure. Now, she just wanted to go home.

"Yes, but not like this," Cornelius spoke everybody's mind. "But Magdalena is truly dead and there's nothing we can do about it. I am more worried about Mircalla now," he paused, giving one last halfhearted attempt to find his fiancée amongst the shadows.

"I just don't understand it," Margreta murmured. "Shouldn't she have been freed? She said that if we killed the one who turned her, she would be saved! But if anything, she seemed even more hostile and vampiric than before," the woman shook her head and fell silent again.

The others couldn't help but agree, though. Margreta was entirely correct. According to their research and Mircalla's own words, Magdalena's death should've lifted the curse and restored Mircalla. Clearly, that was not the case and the triumphant return they had expected to achieve had fallen very flat. Unless…

"What if she lied to us?" Maximiliana was the first to suggest it. "What if Mircalla lied to us about what would happen to her if Magdalena died? What if she only said Magdalena's death would free her in order to garner our support and sympathy? I mean think about it, didn't Mircalla say she had inherited Magdalena's power just after she killed Magdalena?" the girl trailed off as her sister and husband in law pondered her words. She was right. Just moments before Mircalla had vanished into the night again she had clearly said, "I have vanquished my creator and have inherited her power. Nothing can stop me now…"

Slowly, the realization that Mircalla had been playing them all along sank in and the three friends looked at each other in horror.

"What have we done?" they breathed. "What horror have we unleashed in Karnstein? Thanks to us, a true monster is now loose in the kingdom and is even stronger than before, thanks to us…" Mircalla's trick for more power by killing Magdalena had worked like a charm. Her three friends had trusted her so blindly that they allowed for this lie to play itself out and now Mircalla had exactly what she wanted. Her one competitor was dead and she had gotten a boost in strength. That heartless monster had played them all.

"What will that mean for the rest of us?" Cornelius asked, sounding very small.

"It means we're still in big vampire trouble," Margreta sighed regretfully. "We have to round up the others and tell them about this," she said, gesturing to what was left of their second youngest Karnstein. Then, with a heavy heart and a hanging head, she led the others away. They were going to go find the sister whose castle was the closest. As of that moment, that castle was Marcia's. She was not going to be happy.

"You what?!" Marcia thundered at her middle sister. Behind her, her kids were peering fearfully. Her husband was nowhere to be seen.

"We accidently helped Mircalla become stronger by killing the original vampire," Margreta repeated, taking a fearful step back from Marcia.

"Explain. At once!" Marcia took a step forward to compensate for Margreta's step back. With that, Margreta whimpered out the story, starting from Magdalena's suicide and ending with her defeat at Mircalla's fangs.

"Oh my God!" Marcia ran tired fingers through messy hair as her sister finished the story. She covered her mouth next, shaking her head back and forth slowly as she tried to understand everything she had learned. This vampire hunt was going to be so much worse now thanks to them.

"I'm sorry," Margreta was crying now.

"Oh my God," Marcia repeated. She said this phrase several times more and she paced the room in which she and the others stood. Was this really Karnstein's fate? To be torn apart from the inside out by a family feud and a cunning vampire with a power problem? That couldn't be right! But that was exactly what they were facing. Marcia just couldn't believe it.

In time, however, the eldest Karnstein calmed down. She apologized for ever blaming either of her sisters.

"I would've done the same in your place," she told Margreta and Maximilian, taking them both in her arms after so long. They reciprocated the hug in relief, sniffling into her shoulders. "But now, we do have a really big problem at hand."

"We know," Margreta moaned miserably.

"But what can we do?" asked Maximilian.

"We can join the hunt again," Marcia answered. It wasn't a solution any of them wanted, but it seemed that it was all they had.

"Are Maria and Matilda a part of it?" Cornelius asked.

"Maria is leading one of the armies but I don't know about Matilda," Marcia answered him, slowly releasing her younger sisters. "I think Matilda is kind of torn, actually. I know she used to be in support of Mircalla, but I think that's changing."

"As it should," Maximiliana answered bitterly, still clearly sore over Mircalla lying to her and the others.

"What do we do first, then?" Cornelius asked.

"We join them. I can send us all to one of the outposts tomorrow morning. Tonight, though, I think you all need to rest," her stern face softened as she studied her downtrodden sisters closely. She murmured words of affection to them again before leading them to some of the fancier chambers in one of the towers facing the west. For everyone it was a night that was, mercifully, dreamless. They would start planning in the morning.

While miserable sisters hid in Marcia's castle, the others in the vampire hunt stood at the Karnstein chapel, planning.

"We need to find her and fast!" Ferenc brought his fist down on a table that had been dragged into the chapel.

"We know! But we have no idea where she is or where to find her!" Hans shouted back, quivering. The last few days of the hunt were starting to get to everyone and madness, paranoia, distrust, restlessness, despair and anger were setting in. It was just dumb luck that nobody had actually killed anyone else yet, but from the tensions rising in the chapel, a time like that would not be far away.

"Then let us figure out where she might be!" a voice interrupted the quarreling men. It was Maria, still helping in the vampire hunt despite being half blind thanks to Mircalla's earlier attack on the night of her birthday ball. "Surely you, Papa, know what she thinks like!?" she insisted. Ferenc turned on her with a vicious snarl but she met his eyes with equal anger and he finally conceded to let her lead. After all, she was his favorite child and she had proven herself quite aggressive in this hunt.

Hans, meanwhile, only watched with a sad shake of his head. His old heart ached for his young son whom he hadn't seen since the night Mircalla turned. No doubt, he was hiding in his room, crying. Hans knew how much that boy had loved the countess of Karnstein. Hans didn't even have the heart to ask the boy on their mission to kill her. But she had to be stopped, one way or another. So Hans rejoined the Karnstein army in their plot to find and kill Mircalla. Stakes were sharpened, crosses were worn, and plans were made.

Ironically, right outside the door, the vampire in question stood listening in.

"So, you think you can defeat me, O father and sister?" she asked coldly. "What fools!" she shook her head disdainfully. She continued to watch her father and his band of bumbling men continue to run around the chapel, making preparations against her. It filled her with anger and amusement to watch them scurry around her chapel, making plans to murder her, not even knowing she was right outside the door.

"We'll kill her to be sure, my men!" Ferenc cried to the troops.

"Nay, you shall not succeed against me!" she replied softly. "Instead, I shall crush you all like rats underfoot. Not a single one of you will remain alive and I shall be the only Karnstein left to tell the tale!" she decided. Then, after having spoken such words, Mircalla left the scene through the shadows, fleeing the chapel and returning to the mists from whence she came. There was planning going around on all three fronts of the vampire hunt and neither side was about to give an inch to the other.


	15. The Chapel

But in time, something akin to a last battle finally occurred. Nearly three months after Mircalla's transformation, it all came to a head in the Karnstein chapel. The vampire hunt was still going on, but the verve had decreased because no progress was ever made. Instead, Ferenc became largely unpopular and most of his subjects began to turn against him.

"You haven't made any progress, old man!" somebody snarled.

"Yeah! People have been dying all over and what have you accomplished?" another accused.

"Our people are being sucked dry and you haven't managed to even find a trace of the fiend!" a third screamed.

"You're a useless, worthless leader! Let us find another! One who can actually help!" several more agreed.

Such complaints against Ferenc and the few supporters he had left (Hans finally dropped out of the hunt) raged on. They angered the ex-count so much that he nearly fell into madness, determination to kill Mircalla being the only thing keeping him even a little sane because it gave him something other than anger and hatred to focus on. He may have been old but he was not senile. Instead, his blood still boiled with rage at how far his kingdom had fallen. See? This was what happened when a woman was left in charge! If he'd had a son, this would never had happened! But no, God had to curse him with daughters. Now look where it had gotten them all? Ferenc vowed that if he ever met God, he would kill that monster too. But at the same time, he couldn't deny that his people were right. No progress had been made. Mircalla was still a giant threat. Her rampage had carried on and Karnstein's populous was noticeably smaller than it used to be. There was nothing he was doing to help. But at the same time, the proud old man continued to launch attacks and searches, becoming increasingly paranoid in case Mircalla ever came for him.

As for the other Karnstein sisters, though? Well, Maximiliana ended up getting killed some time during the second month of the hunt. Mircalla appeared to her in a dream with the intent of killing her and even though Maximiliana did manage to get in a few good blows, the vampire ultimately won the struggle and while Mircalla was able to wake up and escape, Maximiliana's eyes never opened again. Instead, it was the unpleasant task of Margreta to walk into her younger sister's room and see a throat ripped wide open with blood drying and crusting over the jagged edges of the wound. After Margreta emptied her stomach out the windows she screamed bloody murder and the whole castle came running.

"Oh my God!" Marcia covered her mouth and began to cry. Cornelius, meanwhile, set his teeth in a fury. Margreta could only stare. Even after servants had come and gone, taking Maximilian's bloody corpse with them, Margreta could only stare.

"That monster…" she croaked, the last drop of love she felt for Mircalla dying with Maximiliana.

Maria was the next to fall. How it happened was thus: Mircalla had been showing her face all around the kingdom in the days following Magdalena's death and at last, she dared to reveal herself to Maria.

"Come on you! Ugly demon!" Maria had snarled as Mircalla's spectral figure appeared to her and her court. They all shrank back but bloodlusty Maria moved forward, drawing a dagger. Such courage incited her men to follow her to battle, but much like Mircalla's first night as a vampire, Mircalla merely ran around the palace, leaving death, chaos and confusion in her wake.

The very last battle took place in a tall tower. Maria waved her knife wildly as she heard her sister's cold, mocking coo from all directions.

"Come out, you cowardly cur!" Maria was still unafraid. All night she'd hunted her sister, now it was just the two of them in this one little room. Maria was determined to make it so that only one of them would be free to leave the room by morning and that someone was definitely going to be her. She was the strongest Karnstein daughter, everyone knew it. Mircalla was a fool if she thought Maria was just going to roll over and die and let her take all of the glory that belonged to her. After all, it wasn't Mircalla who was Ferenc's favorite, now was it? No. It was mighty Maria, warrior woman of Karnstein. Mircalla was going to be her next victim and she felt no remorse at all.

"Come on!" Maria repeated impatiently. "Or are you too much a coward to fight like a girl? I want a real battle!" she screamed.

"As you wish, my devilish one!" Mircalla replied, then she lunged from the room's corner and made the first blow. For a few minutes, the girls parried, but it was clear that Mircalla was hardly trying. While Maria slashed and swung, screaming like a barbarian and doing her best to hurt Mircalla even a little, Mircalla was yawning and taunting her.

"My, my, sister. Has age made you slow and old?" she teased. This only angered Maria further until the insane Karnstein made a fatal error. At one point, she tried to rush Mircalla and she ended up tripping out of her own tower window. By some miracle, she did manage to keep herself from falling but Mircalla walked over to the sill and leered down at her, pounding on the stones until the one Maria was holding shook loose. Maria had time to utter one last terrified scream before she plunged 100 feet below to her sudden and messy death. Mircalla peered out the window sweetly at the gruesome sight of her sister's splattered corpse.

"So it's clear she's still our enemy," Margreta muttered one day, dining with Marcia and Cornelius. All of them were unable to enjoy the meal, Maximilian's red throat still burned into their minds. It was clear from the jaggedness of the wound that Maximilian had put up quite a fight. Her death must've been quite drawn-out. It was a realization that made everyone sick. How could Mircalla have been so heartless?

"She is," Marcia agreed just to fill the silence where their adventurous sister might've once spoken or planned something.

"We just need to find her! Lure her out! Maybe we can trap her and stop her!" Cornelius said, trying once again to be the voice of hope in their dwindling group. It was a stupid idea because Mircalla was far too smart to fall into traps, but it was all they had.

At last, though, Cornelius did it. He successfully came up with a plan to catch Mircalla.

"I got it!" he exclaimed, bursting through Marcia's doors one night.

"Got what?" she asked him, eyes tired and world-weary.

"A way to find Mircalla!" he explained. Just for a moment, hope flickered in Marcia's eyes as well.

A week later, the trio stood at the chapel of Karnstein. Matilda was with them. She had tried to stay as neutral as possible during this whole ordeal but after Maria was finally killed, she took her place on the frontlines and when Cornelius came calling with a plan to do something about Mircalla, she agreed to it instantly. Now, she stood beside her surviving sisters as they and Cornelius returned to Karnstein.

"Haven't been here in a long time!" Marcia murmured. She stood at the altar where she had been married off so many years ago. Her husband, though not particularly cruel, was just very egotistical and foolish. It was really Marcia who had been running the castle but of course, all the credit went to her "wonderful" husband. It was sickening. The sole reason Marcia hadn't tried to leave or kill him was because she had three children. She loved them more than anything. She loved them enough to stay as the duchess of that obnoxious man because it meant she got to stay with her kids.

Now here she stood, very much alone, facing the place where she had signed away her Karnstein name.

"Nor have I," Margreta agreed dryly, having wed her husband over in his native home of England. She smiled at the memory though because, unlike most people of the time, she actually had fallen madly in love with her husband. They had five kids, only two surviving, but Margreta still found ways to smile each day because her husband was just such a great man all around. She was lucky to have him and she knew it. Hopefully, once this vampire hunt ended, she could go home to him. She missed him dearly but he had been unable to come down to Austria to help out because he had to run that castle back in England. Margreta understood, though, and bore him no ill will.

"Nor have I," Matilda agreed. Her situation was similar to Margreta's, her having married over at her husband's castle instead of her own. She, too, was fond of her husband, though not quite as fond as Margreta was of hers. They were quite the sappy couple. Matilda's husband was currently serving Ferenc in the hunt for Mircalla. Now, Matilda was finally, finally, getting involved as well.

"I've never been here at all," Cornelius finally added his own piece, staring up at the altar longingly. That was a moment he never got to have. The two Karnstein sisters looked at him pityingly but he shook his head. They weren't here for marital reunions. They were here for burial rights.

"I have a plan!" Cornelius had explained as they went to the chapel from Marcia's castle. "If we can summon Mircalla back at the chapel, we can put her to rest once and for all by returning her to her bed."

"What?" the others asked in confusion, not getting his metaphor.

"Her bed!" Cornelius responded as they reached the chapel. He gestured to the graveyard that surrounded the back of it. There, in the center, was a fresh grave with a coffin, Mircalla's name written in its wooden frame. The others understood now.

"But how are we going to call her here?" Marcia asked. "We haven't seen her since the night Magdalena died."

"There is a spellbook I found," Cornelius confessed. "It explains exactly how we can call a vampire to us and tonight is the perfect night…"

An hour later, when the full moon reached its peak, Mircalla's sisters began to utter Cornelius' chant. They were all kneeling at the altar with Mircalla's coffin lying upon it, surrounded by a ring of candles whose flames flickered gently. Faster and faster they flickered, though, as the chant carried on, their smoke wafting up to the wood rafters. Finally, the chant came to its end and Matilda, Margreta and Marcia finished together in a terrible thrum. All of the sudden, every light except the full moon was extinguished and then, at the door of the chapel, under one of the arches, the devil herself entered in, a bloody and sanguine smile on her pale face.


	16. Put to Rest

"My, my! What a glittering assembly!" Mircalla remarked as she strode in languidly, dark eyes burning.

"Mircalla!" Matilda, Marcia and Margreta called out to the vampire in unison, but she ignored them.

"Ha! Is this your doing, Cornelius, my dear?" she asked, walking further into the chapel with the same indifferent expression as before.

"It is," Cornelius nodded, not meeting her dark eyes. She gave him an unreadable smile.

"Excellent," she said. "You've brought them all here, in one place. Just like I asked you to."

"Asked you to?" Marcia turned on Cornelius. "What does she mean?"

"She means that she knew I was going to call you all here tonight," Cornelius responded.

"Is this a trap!?" Margreta snarled, backing up warily.

"No, no," Cornelius promised. "Not a trap. But a chance. A chance to put this all to rest."

"What do you mean?!" Matilda asked again, angry now. Cornelius smiled beatifically, then he turned to Mircalla.

"Mircalla, my dear, lovely, Mircalla. I have indeed call you all here tonight, but not for the reason you believe!" he said to her. "I have come to put you to rest. Not to surrender the rest of your kin as you so dearly hoped!"

"What?" everybody cried, Mircalla's face darkened while the others contorted into confusion. Cornelius ignored them all in favor of walking slowly towards the woman he nearly got to call a wife.

"Fear not, my beloved. For it will all be over soon…" then the man drew his sword and thrust it forward with strength and speed unmatched. Mircalla gave an unholy screech, narrowly avoiding his blow and swatting his sword away with her bare hands.

"ATTACK!" Cornelius bellowed and, at his words, the other two women leapt at the vampire, drawing their stakes and silver knives.

What ensued was a midnight battle in the chapel. At first, it seemed that it would end no differently than most battles against Mircalla did, but then Cornelius revealed that the spell would keep Mircalla stuck in the chapel so she could never escape.

"So if we flee now, we could just all Papa and have him torch the place?!" Margreta asked hopefully, narrowly dodging a blow from her vampiric sister. All of her desire to save Mircalla had vanished after Maximiliana was killed. Mircalla was even worse that Magdalena because at least Magdalena killed quickly. Mircalla killed anybody she pleased in any fashion.

"No! We must kill her here and now, tonight! Or else we risk the spell breaking and we will never capture her again!" Cornelius shouted from a rafter. He had climbed up the altar to reach this point. John was still in a pew down below while Margreta and Marcia stood back to back, each bearing a silver sword. Mircalla's voice swirled overhead, mocking and wicked. Matilda was just a few feet away, shaking violently with fear, but she still stood tall. She would not be cowed by her baby sister any longer.

"Do you really think you can survive against me?" she cackled. "Foolish mortals! I shall show you how very wrong you are and you shall fall to me as all of Karnstein has fallen before you!"

"But why, Mircalla?! Why?!" the vampire's sisters pleaded. "You used to be so kind, gentle, sweet and cute! You were so sanguine and fun! What happened? Why have you become so cruel and apathetic now?!"

"Why?" Mircalla scoffed. "WHY?! Because it is who I am! I am Mircalla Karnstein! Countess of the Karnstein Kingdom! I am the Devourer of Blood and the Destroyer of Worlds. I am the Ender of Lives and Empires alike! How dare you ask why? I AM MIRCALLA KARNSTEIN! I am the last and greatest Karnstein to ever live and that is how it shall remain, FOREVER!"

The vampire continued to extol herself, proclaiming her many titles and bragging about all of her mighty and wicked deeds. She tore up the whole chapel in her rampage, shattering tiles from the windows and roof of the chapel with her fury. At last, Mircalla's rage was enough to cause part of the ceiling and wall to collapse. The resulting quake ended up knocking Matilda to the ground. Being in such a vulnerable position did not end well for her and Mircalla did not hesitate to run over to her, quickly slitting her throat on her own knife and drinking up the blood that fell from the wound. The surviving sisters began to cower, trembling as their wicked sister approached with Matilda's blood still on her mouth, shadows giving her so much strength that she literally towered over them.

"I am Mircalla Karnstein! Last and greatest Karnstein! One true ruler of this land! And tonight, I will end you!" she screeched, then she lunged forward and grabbed at her sisters blindly. She ended up catching Margreta, seizing her right around the throat.

"Auughh!" Margreta tried to scream as she swung limply from Mircalla's iron grip. Marcia screamed out for her younger sister but Mircalla batted her away easily, turning her full wrath against Margreta. She made sure that Margreta got a good long look at her fanged grin before striking, ripping out Margreta's throat and drinking her blood without a care in the world. She ignored Margreta's dying gargles, finally casting her lifeless body aside before turning to attack Marcia. Right before she could ever even lay a hand on Marcia, though, a wood stake went right through her back and out of her chest. Her eyes widened grotesquely as black blood poured from the hole and she began to sway before falling to the ground with a horrible finality. Behind her stood a shaking, sweating Cornelius, tears in his eyes.

A while later, the ritual was finished. Mircalla's beautiful body was put to rest properly and the other two were buried at the same time, right beside Mircalla. She was nestled in her coffin and the door was shut and nailed before it was slowly lowered down into the Karnstein tomb just a few feet under. Thereafter, Cornelius and Marcia performed the burial rites and granted Mircalla safe passage to the afterlife. It was over now. It was all over. The two met each other's eyes, tired, grieving and broken, but alive and triumphant. Even though they lost Margreta and Matilda, they won the battle. Mircalla was dead. Too soon, yet finally, the literally bloodthirsty countess of Karnstein had been put to rest.

A week later, once word reached every corner of Karnstein about Mircalla's downfall, a national holiday was created a weeklong party was planned. It was a massive celebration in which Ferenc took all the credit but the real heroes let him.

"What a doddering fool!" Marcia grunted as her father lauded himself, his court fully returned to him.

"Ah, let him be. We are so much better than he is!" Cornelius scoffed. Both of them were furious with his selfishness but after seeing how badly a family feud could hurt, they decided to forgive him now before their anger got the best of them. Besides, it would've been what Margreta wanted. The two drank to her memory and to the memory of Maximiliana, Magdalena, Matilda, Mircalla, and even hotheaded Maria. As vicious as she had been, she really had only been trying to restore peace. Tonight was a night of forgiveness, so Marcia and Cornelius drank to all of their fallen friends and foes and they even found it within themselves to forgive Ferenc.

After awhile, though, Marcia escaped the party and roamed to the Karnstein chapel without really knowing why. She strayed far from the castle to be alone with her thoughts and as she entered the ruined chapel, she sighed sadly. Though the blood and bodies had been cleared away, the shattered stones and tiles were still scattered across broken pews and cracked walls. The walls had been cracked long before the last battle, though, the entire chapel having fallen to ruin shortly after Mircalla was first turned into a vampire. Ivy was growing through the cracks and wrapping itself around the moldy rafters. As Marcia looked up at them, she was amazed Cornelius hadn't fallen because of how unstable they looked.

So many memories, fond and painful, had been formed here and to see it in such disrepair now broke her heart.

"Oh, Mircalla, I am so sorry this had to happen to you!" she said, speaking to the altar upon which their sister had lain just a week ago.

"As am I," a dark voice agreed. It was Cornelius, eyes dark and almost wild.

"Ah! Cornelius. Have you come to pay your respects too?" Marcia asked absentmindedly. In the back of her mind, she did wonder why she was so out of it, but she thought no more of it as Cornelius grew closer.

"No," he said. "I have come to retrieve what is mine…" then he stepped past the eldest Karnstein and dug up Mircalla's grave. The girl inside was pristine, even the hole in her chest had healed over completely. Then two red eyes opened and the girl sat up, a fanged grin on her pale face.

"What?" Marcia felt herself growing weak and dizzy.

"Do not worry sister, it will all be over soon," Mircalla cooed, then Marcia felt something sharp pierce her back and her last sight was of Cornelius and Mircalla both, gloating over her dying form as she was tossed into Mircalla's coffin, the door sealed and the grave refilled. Thus, Marcia Karnstein was put to rest while Mircalla Karnstein had woken up.


	17. Escape From Karnstein

Following Marcia's untimely burial, Cornelius turned to Mircalla with a delighted face.

"It worked!" he cried. "It really worked!"

"It did," she cooed back at him, reaching out to caress his face. Her cold fingers sent electricity down his face.

"What do we do now, my love?" he asked her, smitten.

"We make our escape from Karnstein," Mircalla responded lowly, a sultry smile on her red lips.

"Escape from Karnstein," Cornelius echoed, subdued. "Yes. As you wish, my love." then the happy couple fled the ruins of the chapel, leaving the blood of Marcia there to dry and harden and they slipped away into the night.

As it would be revealed, Mircalla's first death sent Cornelius over the edge. When he discovered what she was, though, and when she spread the lie that Magdalena's death would save her, Cornelius became invigorated again. He and the others searched fervently for Magdalena but even when Mircalla spilled her blood and revealed that she only been using them to give herself more power, Cornelius never swayed from his love for her. Instead, when she came to him in a dream with the intent of taunting him about his failures, he reveled in her return. So surprised was she by his smitten reception of her despite her deceit, that she took him back under her wing as an ally, knowing how precious he could be to her. From then on, he was her worker, obeying her every desire. All those months spent hunting for Mircalla were no more than a ruse.

Then, when Cornelius came to his friends with the whole "chapel and spellbook, put her to rest" plan, that had been another thing straight from Mircalla's own mouth. The spellbook and chants were useless, made up by Mircalla in the dead of night and then placed away in a secret corner of the library. That consecration and the burial had been no more than an elaborate show. Never once did any of that stuff work. It was merely another ruse to get the world to believe that Mircalla had finally been vanquished despite this being the opposite of the truth. In addition, Mircalla insinuating that Cornelius had brought her three surviving sisters to her in response to a command was both foreshadowing and a way to throw the sisters off guard and give Cornelius one last chance to prove himself as "a simple good guy". And, even though Cornelius had stabbed her, that had all been acted as well. Mircalla only pretended to die. Once it was over, however, Cornelius came to get her, retrieving her from her tomb, but he and Mircalla both knew that they would need a replacement body. That was where Marcia came into play. After slipping a poison into her drink, Cornelius was able to ambush Marcia easily and that led to now. The eldest Karnstein hadn't even suspected because of Cornelius' grandiose display in the chapel battle, pretending to betray Mircalla when instead he had been betraying the others the whole time. With Marcia taking Mircalla's place deep below ground, the pair was free to escape from Karnstein.

That night, under the cover of clouds, the pair fled the kingdom. They spent the rest of their lives together, traveling. Never once did either of them look back. Not even when Karnstein began to return to chaos and, ultimately, civil war, did either of them look back.

"Ferenc was a weak man," Mircalla shrugged when Cornelius approached her about the fact that her old kingdom was suffering a war. "If he had held any sense or strength, he wouldn't have failed his kingdom enough to stir up rebellion. He deserves whatever he gets and I hope he rots along with Mama and my other sisters!" the vampire added callously. Her words now were cruel, but Cornelius couldn't agree more, having never liked any of the other sisters anyway. Not even the ones he'd kept an alliance with for almost a year as they tried to "save" Mircalla. No, to Cornelius, Mircalla was the only good Karnstein and she was perfect the way she was. Everyone else had to go and he felt no regret over betraying them.

But even this could not last for, in time, Mircalla allowed her desire for blood and power to override her desire for Cornelius and she grew increasingly disdainful of him. The man she once adored with all her being became a mere plaything to scorn.

"Please, Mircalla!" he insisted. "Why won't you come to me anymore!?" Cornelius cried when he heard of another affair Mircalla had started.

"Because you do not please me anymore," she replied calmly. "You are far too old!" she claimed, but this wasn't that true. Cornelius was only in his mid 30s. It just seemed old because Mircalla hadn't aged a day since her transformation. She still looked 18. Cornelius continued to plead with his lover to return to him, but now that his usefulness had come to an end in the eyes of Mircalla, she disregarded him.

"Darling, darling!" she declared at last. "I do love you, but I believe you and I must part! We simply were not meant to be!" she cried. Then before Cornelius, her faithful goon and lover, could even open his mouth to beg again, she had vanished. She left him alone without a second look and he never saw her again. He was left heartbroken while she was off to see the world, free as a bird. She ran from country to country, exploring all of Europe at her own pace. Along the way, she dabbled deeper and deeper into the dark arts and befriended many more creatures just like her, equally powerful, selfish and cruel. At last, she was amongst her own kind! She would no longer be dragged down by petty mortals such as her family or Cornelius. They would all rot in the earth where they belonged while she would stay young and strong forever, ruling the world and getting to claim all of its wonders for herself as it should've always been!

The only time Mircalla ever looked back was about 25 years after her escape from Karnstein. The castle was literally falling apart, several stones crashing down the side of the old castle as she approached it. Nobody was left inside. Everyone was either dead or had moved elsewhere. Mother and sisters were all dead and Ferenc, it turned out, had died in the middle of his rebellion. The people were sick of him and being old and alone meant that he was a very easy target. Mircalla did think she found his head. It was only a skull at this point but it was still impaled upon a particularly wicked pole that stood just a few yards away from the crumbling castle's door. Once upon a time, those gates and doors had been formidable, now they were hanging open on their hinges with their master's head displayed like a decoration right behind them. Cornelius' kingdom wasn't faring much better, Hans having finally died of old age while all of his sons ran off to bigger and better places. The empty castle had been overtaken but the owners did not last long there before Ferenc's civil was reached them and tore them all down into ruin as well.

After taking that quick sojourn home, however, Mircalla left again and, this time, she did not return. Instead, she continued her vicious killing sprees as the creature of the night that she was, taking the time to finish picking off the rest of her bloodline which all came in the form of nieces and nephews around the world. It took awhile, but she did manage to kill every single one of them off and if any of them managed to grow old enough to have kids of their own, those kids did not last long at all. Not a single living being with Karnstein blood was left alive. Mircalla hadn't been joking when she said it was her goal to be the last and greatest living Karnstein. The rest were put under the ground to keep her parents and sisters company as they wasted away in their tombs.

Cornelius, meanwhile, fell to ruin. With Mircalla gone, his heart was broken. With his kingdom gone, his financial resources were broken. Cornelius had gone from a baron to a literal Nobody in seconds flat. He literally had nothing. He had no one and nowhere to go to and he had nothing to help him get there. He was cursed with that bitter, painful, lonely, broken existence for the rest of his life. But then at last, as he got older and older, Cornelius began to regret simply letting Mircalla go that night. A part of him still loved her even though she betrayed even him, but when he was nearing the end of his life, he began to fear and regret.

"I shouldn't have let her go! I should've have let her go! I shouldn't have let that monster loose!" he cursed himself as his voice cracked and creaked. "I should have tried to stop her or find her again! I was a fool for just letting her go!" he despaired.

He spent his last few years on earth attempting to undo all his work, pouring over novels, notes and spellbooks in attempt to find something that might put Mircalla to rest again. It was a role he hadn't played since boyhood, but it was what he was doing now and this time, he was doing it for real. At last, he found something. There was a way to stop Mircalla. All he had to do was kill her and then ruin her coffin so that not only would she be dead, but she would have no place to go to for safety if she did manage to survive or resurrect again. A vampire without a coffin was a king without a castle. A vampire without a coffin was nothing but a dead man waiting for the reaper to come. If Cornelius could just remember where her coffin was exactly, reach it, then kill her and it, the reign of terror would finally be over.

But that was easier said than done because while Cornelius was an old man, Mircalla was still only 18 years in body. It didn't matter that she returned to her coffin at a predictable time every morning, she was still no pushover and if anything, she was even harder to trick now than before because her years of life on Earth had given her all sorts of cunning and wisdom to evade those who would do her harm. That did not hinder Cornelius, however. Instead, he made the lonely trek back to the Karnstein chapel where it all started and, with a wood stake in hand and the morning sun at his back, he dug up the countess' coffin. Cornelius felt his heart begin to pound, though, when he opened the coffin's lid. It was sunrise and the coffin was empty.

"Yes, you are very right to be afraid of me, O Cornelius…" a feminine voice hissed from behind the old man. Cornelius turned around in pure terror and his eyes widened in horror to see Mircalla in all her vampiric glory staring down at him gloatingly. She still had not aged a day and even though it was clear that the morning light was causing her pain, it wasn't nearly enough to do more than make her uncomfortable. Her eyes were wide and red as she approached him slowly. His shaking arm raised a feeble wood stake that she scoffed at.

"Stay back, demon!" he whimpered, voice weak and throaty both from fear and age.

"Surely my love doesn't believe a splinter can kill a lion?" she asked, but Cornelius still took a brave step forward. Mircalla tossed her head back and gave a howling laugh that echoed off the ruins of her chapel. It was all that remained after the civil war that destroyed Karnstein in her absence, her father being publically beheaded before having that head carted around the kingdom. Nobody mourned him. Nobody would mourn Cornelius either. Not even the worms Mircalla tossed him to after draining his life blood away. He would never make another escape from Karnstein again.

But Mircalla wasn't done. Instead, she knew that Cornelius had come far too close to killing her. All of his notes, theories, and discoveries were correct. Instead, she needed a new plan… Using some dark magic of her own that a few of her friends had taught her over the decades, the young woman realized that there was one viable option to strengthen her such that this close call might never happen again. That one option stated that the blood of a family member would make her even stronger than she already was and would allow her the strength to survive an attack like this. It would make her more aware of it and would allow her to, possibly, survive if it succeeded.

In short, if Mircalla wanted to protect herself better, she needed to drink the blood of a Karnstein. But if they were all dead, who did she have? Oh, wait! There was actually one last Karnstein still floating around out there, a little girl. Mircalla had actually been in the middle of trying to hunt her down, even risking staying out a bit later than normal to find her. That was why Cornelius had opened the coffin only to find it empty. She was out late hunting and had come back in time to see him entering her tomb. Had she been in bed on time like normal, he surely would've won. It was only dumb luck and her own desire to kill her kin that kept her out late long enough to witness what Cornelius was going to do to her. That was why his attack unnerved her so much, even if she didn't show it. It was just far too close a call. Only luck had saved her.

Now it looked like luck was going to save her again. By the sun preventing her from killing her last relative, this little tidbit about drinking the blood of your kin still stood for her. Had she succeeded, she would've really been out of luck because that little girl was all Mircalla had left. Thanks to her luck, though, that child was still alive and Mircalla still had a chance. As this thought struck the vampire, she raced back to the place where she knew her relative to be, ignoring the sun's harsh glare. She peered in the window and heaved a sigh of relief. The child was totally fine. She would have to stay that way, too, if Mircalla wanted her plan to work…

So, for the next 15 years, Mircalla watched over her last surviving relative and kept her as safe as possible. The moment the woman had several children to carry on the Karnstein line, however, Mircalla attacked. The poor woman was diagnosed to have died in her sleep from some strange sickness, but Mircalla knew otherwise.

Then, her gaze was set upon the four children and the cycle repeated itself. So now, Mircalla had something of a fountain of youth/strength in the form of these children. So long as at least one survived long enough to reproduce, Mircalla's terrifying legacy was safe. She took one last peek at the four little ones, only one of which was old enough to understand why mama hadn't woken up, then she darted back to the safety of her coffin. Ever since Cornelius, nobody had ever even found the old box and she was relived. It was time for her to sleep and she quite liked knowing that she would be able to rest without interruption or fear. So, as she lay down and shut her eyes and the coffin door, she was already dreaming.

She was dreaming of her own future and all the Hell she would raise as her legacy continued, her little fountain of strength secured. No matter how far she or her kin went, she would ensure that they would never truly escape from Karnstein and she would always find them in the end. She wasn't sure which of the four children she wanted to prey upon first, but she knew she would do it eventually and when the time came, she would come to them in the guise of a friend the same way she had once played Cornelius who had, in turn, played her sisters. Of course, she would need a new name in order to pull it off without suspicion. Her smile was sanguine as she thought of names that she might like. Some that crossed her sleepy mind were Millarca or Callamir or Callmira, or maybe even… Carmilla.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: If you're reading this, congrats for finishing my story! To recap, as you can see, it's a Carmilla prequel. Predominately, it was for the book. The basic plot is that Karnstein was a fearsome kingdom, headed by a retired general and his seven friendly daughters but as the years roll by, things change. Finally, vampires enter the picture and we see how evil Mircalla can really get and her lover, who is mentioned in the book, becomes her devoted servant and helps her lure her entire family to death. Then, once every last Karnstein has fallen, Mircalla and her lover escape and spend a good few years exploring the world before Mircalla turns her back even on him and leaves him to die alone while she goes on without him. In time, he tries to repent and kill Mircalla but she stops him just in time and finds a new way to prevent that from ever happening again. She just needs the blood of her surviving relatives so, through one of her nieces, this bloodline is propagated and her MO of befriending and then haunting her bloodline begins. Hope you liked it!


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